Forever Center is dedicated to the purpose of endowing humanity with immortality, but the cost to each individual is phenomenal, and there is no guarantee there will be enough room on earth or in space for the millions that will be called back from their frozen graves. A man named Ettinger started men thinking about a second mortal life as far back as 1964 and now in 2148 it is a reality and Daniel Frost is a key man in Forever Center. He denies himself any of the comforts and pleasures of this world to insure himself a place in his next life, but he does not maintain that giving man immortality is tampering with the order of life — a viewpoint the Holies are constantly and fervently trying to expose as immoral and dangerous. Suddenly Dan finds himself the pawn of a vicious plot of subterfuge within the organization. He is ostracized and condemned to a life of hopeless and desperate wandering. He is not without help, however — Ann Harrison, a woman lawyer, knows of his innocence, and so does Franklin Chapman, a man condemned to death with no chance of a second life — both come to his aid at the risk of their own lives. And there is Mona Campbell — the woman mathematician whom Dan discovers has some shattering knowledge concerning immortality and the quest of Forever Center.