Brion Bayard, an American diplomat on assignment in
Stockholm, Sweden, is kidnapped by agents from a
parallel universe. He is taken to the Earth of the Imperium, which rules most of the civilized world from London, having been formed by the union of the
British Empire, which included America, the
German and
Austro-Hungarian empires, and
Sweden. He is impressed by the commitment to duty of the Imperial officials he meets and is attracted to a lady. A mid-rank official is this world's
Hermann Göring, who – as
Nazi Germany never existed – seems to be a decent person. The Maxoni-Cocini drive, invented by Italians Giulio Maxoni and Carlo Cocini at the end of the 19th century, enables traveling between parallel universes. However, its development was extremely dangerous; almost all the time lines where it was attempted were destroyed, leaving a region known as the Blight. The few where the Earth survived are known as Blight Insulars, or BIs. BI-1 is the Imperium, where the Maxoni-Cocini drive is used to trade with time lines beyond the Blight. BI-3 is Bayard's home world. The reason for Bayard's abduction is that the Imperium is under attack from BI-2, where
Imperial Germany won the
First World War but failed to consolidate its victory, with a chaotic and highly destructive war continuing to rage for generations. This world was not believed to have the Maxoni-Cocini drive until it was determined to be the source of increasingly destructive raids, including the detonation of an atomic bomb, something the Imperium never developed (and does not fully understand). It is ruled by a dictator ... Brion Bayard. Bayard undergoes extensive training to replace his counterpart undetected and end the raids. The plan falls through almost as soon as he arrives in the new world. For some reason, almost nobody he meets believes his impersonation. The reason becomes apparent when he meets the other Bayard, who had lost both legs in a battle years before. However, this other Bayard is not the evil dictator he is portrayed to be. He greets his doppelganger as a brother, and tells him how, after being a military officer dedicated to saving the soldiers under his command, he became a dictator after the government he served disintegrated, and tried to save what was left of shattered world. He is based in
Algiers, which was less damaged than other parts of the world, and used the remnants of the former
French colonial government as the nucleus of his fledgling world government. He knows nothing of the raids on the Imperium. The two Bayards talk over a gourmet meal and discover they have much in common, including similar histories. Bayard the dictator is assassinated by the real conspirators, who are working for power-hungry factions in the Imperium itself, using stolen technology. Bayard himself is scheduled for a showy execution, after amputation surgery. He is able to escape back to the Imperium and expose the conspirators. Offered the unprecedented opportunity to return to his Earth, he looks at the woman who has become so important to him, and declares, "Home is where the heart is." ==Sequels==