With a subdued hissing sound, a luminous sphere emerged from the fireplace, moving slowly, parallel to the wall and knee-height from the floor. the sphere was half the size of a football, and moved horizontally, set away from the wall by an arms-length. both toshiro and his uncle gazed at this apparition in profound fascination. then the sphere suddenly vanished, leaving a faint smell of ozone and nitric oxide as the only vestiges of its passing. the whole experience had probably lasted less than two seconds. they remained silent and heard a distant roll of thunder. there had been no sharp crack of a local lightning strike. toshiro was the first to speak, "uncle, what on earth was that?" "ball lightning " the son of a scottish father and a japanese mother, child prodigy hero toshiro alexander muir embarks on a quest to unravel a mystery of nature: the explanation behind ball lightning. set against the backdrop of the first half of the last century, the plasma sphere delves into psychoactive mushrooms, nazi spies in brazil, and some unpalatable characters in argentina as toshiro and his group of anarchist friends determine to change the course of history.