This is no ordinary artifact. Its arrival collapses trees for a quarter mile around its base, freezing ice out of the air and emitting a burst of ionizing radiation. It appears to be composed of an exotic form of matter. And the inscription chiselled into it commemorates a military victory sixteen years in the future.

Then, not long later, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok -- obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, its own near future.

Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note? Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a strange final battle with the future.