rod mcban 151st farms stroon the immortality drug and is the last scion of one of the oldest and most honourable families on norstrilia only source of stroon but hes also a telepathic cripple and faces the everpresent risk of being culled under the governments draconian population lawsto protect himself he uses his notstrictlylegal computer to play the market and amass an unimaginable fortune but after he survives an assassination attempt mcban discovers that having enough money to literally buy the earth is no good if youre too dead to spend it annie clark was one of several wives of lds church commissioner of education joseph tanner a good mother and devout mormon woman she nevertheless admitted that she saw her husband so infrequently that she felt more like his mistress her disappointment speaks volumes about the hardships of practical polygamy as opposed to the ideal that was preached from the pulpit