"Humanity is dying. Banished from the Earth, our descendants eke out lives in orbital habitats and moon colonies--and look with longing on our former home. But Earth is deadly. Over hundreds of years, its oceans have transformed into an annihilating liquid entity--the Caul. Every living creature approaching its shores is irresistibly compelled to enter... and is never seen again. Scientists, some of the few inhabitants left, work in facilities seeking to understand and stop the Caul. And scavenging the shores are the penitents--those who resist its siren lure. Among them is penitent Mae Jameson, an octogenarian former Service agent who arrived on Earth thirty years ago to find her lover. When she encounters Siofra, a mute girl, wandering alone by the shore and returns her home, they discover the girl's father, rogue scientist Carl Magellan, hanging from a noose. He's been murdered. Unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the facility Carl abandoned years ago, Mae takes Carl's journals--which detail his obsession with the Caul and its mysteries--and sets about investigating."--Provided by publisher