In the shadow of the Marble Cliffs, the Narrator and Brother Otho lead a near idyllic life as dedicated botanists, spicing frugality with spasmodic carnival. Then the Foresters of the Campagne take to roaming with incendiary torches in murderous midnight bands.
Soon, time-honoured rituals are being turned to baser ends... even in the towns of the Great Marina, once famous for their now discredited poets and philosophers.
In time, a miasma of evil blankets the country and at last even the botanists are drawn towards the final appalling holocaust.