Once the western powers have annihilated themselves in a nuclear war, India and China divide up the world between them; what's left of the U.S. becomes a Chinese agricultural colony. Then rice-paddy coolie and aspiring scholar Pettyman Castor discovers a ... More severed headin the mud--and the police investigator, lustful Hah Chinese inspector Tsoong Delilah, conceives a passion for him. During the official enquiry, Castor is given the opportunity to use an advanced computer and information network; astonishingly, he discovers that an alien spaceship is approaching, and demanding to talk to the President of the U.S.! Prodded by Delilah, the Chinese hurriedly name Castor President and send him into space tomeet the aliens--where a ""spaceway"" transporter whips Castor instantly off to World, a planet inhabited by mammaloid-insectoid ""erks,"" plus a few thousand jingoistic Americans, descendants of an expedition dispatched just before war broke out.