England a long time in the future ___ a time of change, a time of danger. Pleasure androids pander to the sexual fantasies of the population, but the fashion of the time is jaded with these offerings. The need to make these products more enticing leads to the invention of a conscious android. The book charts the experiences of Persephone, the first of these androids, and the disastrous impact of her free will on this project. But the android's creator is not so easily thwarted. He devices a new use for his technology, a use capable of shaking his society to its foundation. Despite Persephone's own warnings, he pushes ahead, and the book culminates with a dangerous experiment to test his new brain child.