She needed to leave a message for the lover she would never see again . . .
A damaged orbiter spinning away from Earth — no hope of help — a desperate astronaut uses the on-board liquid nitrogen to freeze himself in the hope of eventual rescue — perhaps centuries in the future when his long orbit takes him next within reach.
John Donegal swallows a handful of sleeping pills before the cold becomes unbearable. His last thoughts are of Jill, whom he has loved with all his heart and soul. He is spinning away from her and all the promises they had made together.
When he is awakened, he is at first exuberant to be alive at all. But then the reality sinks in. Jill and everything else he ever cared about are gone forever, buried in what people in this new present think of as ancient history.
For all his training and education, he is something of a child in this new world. He is eager to understand the change that has happened in his absence. Technology is clearly advanced, but quite invisible, buried beneath the surface of a society that values only peace and nature. Even the technology of his own time is gone: no cars or planes; people are horrified at the thought because of the carnage high-speed vehicles would cause animals and birds.
He gradually comes to understand that a far more essential change is the role of women. The patriarchy he left behind has been replaced by a radical and rigid matriarchy. The male of the species is viewed indulgently, but firmly kept in his place. His entire sense of what it means to be a man strikes those around him as absurd. He is master of nothing, but still an attractive man, desirable to the women around him. The power they have granted themselves makes them confident, sensual, and demanding. At first Donegal is charmed by the erotic role he has been assigned, but then thoughts of Jill intrude. How did the rest of her life play out? How would she have him live in this new reality? Most of all, what might she have left behind for him to find? He sets out to discover the answers.