Ahmed Bazargan (an Iranian) leads the team of diplomats who descend to the planet World. On his team are Dieter Gruber, a geologist; Ann Sikorski, a xenobiologist, and David Campbell Allen III, a graduate student in xenology. Their mission is to learn as much as possible about World, the Worlders and their culture, particularly the peculiar phenomenon of shared reality, which causes "head-pain" to those holding, or in the presence of someone holding, views contrary to the majority. This has had the drawback of limiting science, technology and progress; Worlders, though a far older species than Terrans, are somewhere around the Renaissance in terms of its technology. Bicycles are the cutting edge in personal transportation, each produced by artisans and individual craftsmen. On the other hand, there has never been a war on World; even the average barroom brawl causes intense head-pain. World's religion focuses on flowers; they believe that their people were created by the First Flower, which descended into the Neury Mountains, and much of their ceremony, both religious and every-day, involves blossoms. The sacredness of the mountains themselves is maintained by a wasting sickness inflicted on any who enter it.