There may be nowhere to go during The Automatic Age, the autovolts have swept the earth clean of most of its human inhabitants and Kerion fears that his son will grow up a loney anomaly on an earth free of people. Time is running out for Kerion; the prosthetics that keep him alive are breaking down. What will happen to his son Barry if he must grow up alone? The discovery of a group of survivors may be the hope Kerion needs. But is it better to risk isolation then leave his son with a group of religious fanatics? The Last People may have a clue about the Delta City, a fabled refuge of humankind, a place free of the technologies that are trying to kill them. The truth will send them on the run in a fight for survival beneath the sea of stars others called The Backbone of Night.