Orf is an intelligent drilling machine, designed to probe to the very center of the Earth. What he finds deep under the Earth's crust is a living force so radically unexpected that our life on the surface is altered by its discovery. But, as the world around him changes, and the Pacific Northwest is transformed by cataclysmic earthquakes and social upheavals, Orf must change as well, becoming both myth and monster, savior and sage to future generations of humanity.