time travel was strictly regulated by the carefully worded "Treaty of Prague" and limited to two elite bodies – the Western Empire's Society of Time and the Confederacy's Temporal College – both of which are overseen by the Catholic Church in accordance to a special Papal Bull De tenebris temporalibus (of which Brunner provides part of the Latin text). Both great powers want to preserve their monopoly of time-travel and are concerned about Cathayan attempts to develop time apparatus outside the framework of the Vatican-supervised Treaty of Prague (much as, at the time of writing, Americans and Soviets tried to avert Chinese achievement of nuclear arms). Though slavery still exists, and democracy never appeared, the dominant Catholic Church is less intolerant and harsh than it was at the time of the Armada. Protestantism, surviving only in Scandinavia, is regarded more with curiosity than hostility, and though the Inquisition still exists it has long since abandoned the use of torture in favour of hypnotism. Moreover, there is mention of a movement for women's equality, at least among upper-class women. (Swedish women are mentioned as more assertive than those of other countries – as they were famous for being, in our own world at the time of writing.) In all, the alternate 20th Century depicted by Brunner is significantly more humane than that in Keith Roberts' Pavane, written a few years later and also based on a victory of the Spanish Armada. Plot summary In 1988, Don Miguel Navarro is a "Licentiate in Ordinary" of the Society of Time. As a Licentiate, Don Miguel's primary duty is to ensure the preservation of history, lest an alteration undo the empire. While at a party held by the Marquesa di Jorque, his hostess shows off a gold Aztec mask she had recently received as a gift. Recognizing it instantly as contraband, Don Miguel launches an investigation that eventually leads to the unmasking and arrest of Don Arcimboldo Ruiz, a prominent nobleman (and a cunning and skilful villain) engaged in the illegal acquisition of goods from the past. Don Miguel is then entrusted with returning it to the exact spot in the past from which it was taken, in time for it to be used in the Aztec bloody rites of mass human sacrifice – with which he is duty bound not to interfere but which leave him shaken. Because of his success, Don Miguel