content: In the early 1960s, a government intelligence agent finds that a veteran of the Civil War is still alive, but doesn't look a day over 30. The man lives in a house that nobody else can get into, and in the family cemetery behind the house, alongside the tombstones of his mother and father, is a third tombstone with an inscription written in a language nobody can identify.If all that isn't enough to get you interested, maybe there's something wrong with you! What follows is a story that is undoubtedly one of Simak's best, bringing together a wealth of scientific ideas, an imaginative plot, and the descriptive power and deep, introspective characterizations for which Simak is well-known. The result is a story that is captivating, philosophical, and, in the end, spiritual.