In this astonishing novel, P. D. James imagines a future England in which no child has been born for twenty-five years. Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young violent and cruel.Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere until a chance encounter leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly he faces agonising choices which could effect the future of mankind.
