The Civilizations of the First and Second Man have been destroyed by the products of their own technology. Now the world is emerging from a new dark age into the dawn of a second Middle Ages. Britain is dominated by the Luddite Church and by the doctrine that all machines are evil. Into this strange world comes Kieron, an artist's apprentice who is inflamed by a forbidden dream - to construct a flying machine which will enable man to soar through the air like a bird.