Michael Cambridge is the hereditary leader of a religious order of assassins. He wants out, but the order will kill him if he leaves.
The Scourge of God was founded in the 14th century to kill the Droon, men and women that the order's founder believed were devils in human form. Devoutly Christian, intensely conservative and secretive, willing to kill to preserve Christendom, the Scourge is fanatical and deadly. Mike tried once to escape his destiny, but the order forced him to assume his father's position as its leader - under threat of death if he refused.
But the Droon themselves may hold the key to his freedom. For Mike, interrogating a Droon according to the rules of an old agreement between them and the Scourge of God, discovers that they are not devils after all, but aliens from another world, their spirits incarnate in human form after their home planet was destroyed in a great interstellar war. Cruel, deceitful, and monstrous, the Droon are reborn in a new human body each time one of them dies, with all their memories intact. They have chosen Earth as their refuge, and mean to transform it into a world under their total domination, with the rest of humanity reduced to their slaves and pain-toys.
Yet they are not unopposed. Their enemies, the Andol, are also on Earth in human form. Down the centuries the Andol have been completely invisible to the Scourge of God, but now their presence has been revealed to Mike Cambridge by the Droon. Desperate for a way to be free, Mike sets out to find the Andol, hoping that they can help him against both the Droon and his own hereditary doom. Thus he begins a long, dangerous quest. Mike is pursued by deadly alien killers. He is confused by his passion for Amanda, the beautiful and charismatic Andol leader, uncertain of her motives and her manipulative ways, but vulnerable to the dictates of his heart. The danger grows as well from his own order, which has become increasingly suspicious of Mike's heretical thoughts and actions.
Can Mike escape from his bondage to the Scourge of God before the order or the Droon bring his life to an end? If he does, will he truly be free, or will he find himself wrapped around Amanda's pretty finger? Who will control his destiny - and that of the human race?
