The earth was being destroyed by its inhabitants, and as many as possible of those who realized it left the planet in a massive spaceship fitted out to travel for generations, taking with it all the basics in supplies and information that the travelers would need to start again after the earth thawed from its nuclear winter. An agrarian society, Mir was a place of peace where everyone had a job of their choice to do. The Council (known by all) met every month to see that things went well and the Watchers (two men and two women known only by one another) worked to quietly oversee the safety of Mir. When a young boy saw a friend carrying something impossibly heavy and strange looking on his scooter, he expressed his concern to his friend the blacksmith (a watcher). His friend calmed the boy down, but he himself was concerned, reminded of the time of darkness. Soon two incidents of memory loss and extreme violence occurred, and it was clear that something bad had come to Mir. It took two children and a strange pale little man to literally unearth and solve the problem and return Mir to peace.