[[nid:5141]]Ten years ago, alien monoliths crash landed in various location around the earth. For ten years the monoliths did nothing besides exist--unmoving, uncaring, and silent. These monoliths became known as Trees. For most of humanity, they are a background concern even though the Trees loom over everyday life. They silently add their pressure to everything from general human interactions to world politics. Every country, every Tree city, is trying to figure out what to do about the Trees while also maintaining some level of normalcy.
The story is told from the point of view of a handful of characters in different geographical locations--New York City, Cefalu, Hamar, a made up city in China, and Svalbard. The story in Norway deals with a discovery about the Trees that has the potential to change everything that people believed about the Trees, and could potentially cause widespread panic. However, in every story the reader is shown that there is already panic among about the Trees because by all appearances humanity might as well not exist given the Trees non-communication, so why are they on earth? This mystery that drives a good deal of the plot. That being said, what also drives the plot is humanity’s human- ness. Humanity has basically been invaded, yet for the most part it’s just damage control and power moves from most government bodies.