Wendover was fascinated by the sickness of his world, and his red-knuckled hands were locked together, as if by proximity they might gain some sort of comfort."" Wendover will find little comfort and smaller fascination in the post-holocaust world that will soon confront him. It erupts into the kind of savagery and grotesquerie that John Christopher used to specialize in, as Wendover, a doctor, finally finds himself trying to save a mutant baby from his own kind. Christopher has a rival.