The twenty-first century is lurching chaotically into a perilous and uncertain future. Once vibrant and creative, the University—now large, anachronistic, and bureaucratic—has all but exhausted its capabilities to respond to challenges and threats from within and without. Years of hypocrisy and power politics have taken their toll on the would-be “second Caltech.” Now, everything is going wrong. A cynical attempt to fire a popular young teacher, Alistair Higham, explodes as students, parents, alumni, and the professors’ professional organization come to the aid of the teacher. Investigation by the professional organization brings other injustices to light. It seems likely that the University will be censored and will lose its accreditation. The neighborhood around the University rises in protest over the latter’s ham-handed attempt to have a block of lower-middle-class houses razed to make room for a parking lot. Tight connections with industry make the University a partner in dumping toxic wastes in poor Mexican American neighborhoods and in mining in mountain wildernesses. Eventually, a crafty liaison with the oil industry comes to a head as the University is revealed to be an indirect participant in genocide in Quetzalgalpa, a remote and war-ravaged Central American country