Frank and Josef meet while hiking. They take refuge in a cave to escape a violent storm. While there, a natural event takes place transferring them to the alternate world of NShalain. There they find the natural laws make them in effect handicapped supermen. They find many problems, both physical and political in their new world and get involved in attempts to resolve them.

This is the continuation of the story started in NShalain Troubles, The Arrival. Frank, Josef, their wives and friends have determined that some means of saving the NShalain people from a natural catastrophe must be implemented. They run into problems from both Earth people and The NShalain people themselves. Earth has found out about the NShalain from a "good deed" that Silma and her husband perform.

Twenty five years have passed since the NShalain colony has been set up. The transition crystals have finished developing. Frank and the others now plan to return to NShalain to begin bringing the people there to the colony. They fear they will be returning to a full blown war and have prepared a special ship. They are also having problems with Earth, especially since they have developed their own warp drive.

Bob Horton began his journalism career as a reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Innate skill and good fortune took him from a modest Texas farm upbringing to Washington, DC, where he was thrown into the high-pressure world of the wire service, first as a correspondent for the Associated Press, and later for Reuters news agency. The stress was intense, but he found the rush to be intoxicating. From his early days covering the Dallas murder trial of Jack Ruby, through three colorful decades as a newsman, Horton often found himself witnessing history in the making. He covered the Pentagon during the early days of the Vietnam War, was on board a Navy ship in the Mediterranean awaiting Israel's expected attack on Egypt, was witness to the Watergate burglary trial, and attended a Beverly Hills church service with then President-elect Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy. The success Horton enjoyed as a journalist mostly hid the dark side of his career: a gradual descent into alcoholism. Of Bulletins and Booze candidly recounts the unforgettable moments of Horton's career, as well as more than a few moments he would just as soon forget.