Officer Joseph Tinbane isn't surprised when he hears a voice speaking to him from beneath the ground - he knows it's just one of the 'old-born' waiting to be dug up. For time is going backwards: old men emerge from their graves, grow to middle age, youth, adolescence and childhood to be finally unborn in their mother' wombs.

The most powerful - and feared - organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the records of events which have no longer happened. But when a powerful black leader is unborn, it is the Library's sole aim to eliminate him before the renewal of racial violence tears the country apart.

But it isn't that simple. Time which heals can also destroy. And one man is struggling in a world gone awry.