A map to the future sung in concert beneath the waves. A stolen cruise ship carrying a dark hope and a final threat. A journey to the past with a song to change the world.

When a dolphin leaps and dives, she punctures the surface of the world and makes a ring of water. This ring spreads outward until it mixes its peaks and vales with the ocean waves. The change is infinitesimal. The change is real.

A century has passed since the fall of humanity changed the natural landscape. The oceans are poison, and a fraction of Earth’s magnificent creatures remain. The only surviving humans squabble over limited resources as they cling to a fragile peace.

Yet, in this bleak landscape, hope lives on in Earth’s other intelligent life. It all begins when Septielle, a seven-armed octopod, has a vision of a world restored - a world she will not live to see. Inspired by her vision, a dolphin named Muriel shoulders her mission and enlists any humans who will listen - including Anadare, a young islander with an ax to grind against the oppressive ruling class of tourists-turned-bureaucrats.

An invasion of cannibalistic pirates complicates things as they declare war on a world that rejects them. As tensions rise to a crescendo, islanders, tourists, and pirates alike must put aside their differences to send Muriel on her greatest journey yet - beyond the sea, beyond form, beyond time itself.

In his first novel, Chris Riker conducts an opus in voce giocoso that grins at the inevitable, but reminds us of the heart that all life shares.