On the other side of the dreams. Hamilton P.

3326. Nigel Sheldon, one of the founders of the Commonwealth, is visited by a representative of Ryel - a race who appointed himself to the guards of the abyss, mysterious education in the nucleus of the Galaxy, which threatens the existence of all living things. Ryeli convinces Nigel to participate in a desperate attempt to break into the abyss.

Having been inside, Nigel discovers that people are not the only form of life that was drawn into the abyss, where the laws of physicists are somewhat different, but mental abilities, indistinguishable from magic, in the order of things. People who have trapped there are fighting an alien type of biological imitators. Although the Padantens have reason, they act as merciless killers.

However, it is these strangers that can serve as the key to the complete elimination of the threat of abyss - if only Nigel is able to reveal their secret. While Padans continue to mercilessly attack people, and a vulnerable human society is split into different camps in the civil war, Nigel must discover the secrets of the Padantsev - before the very people that he had to be saved.