Don't think new thoughts, don't improve anything, don't wander over the next hill: these were the commandments for the men and women of the experimental village - one of those careful nurtured settlements established after the collapse of world civilization. The rules were made by the benevolent Masters of the Island - and they had to be obeyed. To disobey was to be destroyed. But Robert Ventnor, villager with a dangerously high quotient of curiosity, was the exception. He fled - and evaded liquidation. But he fled right into the hands of THESE SAVAGE FUTURIANS and thereby supplied the key that could blast apart civilization's second chance and destroy the world once and for all.