2014: Renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, “A Corona for Vivien.” Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come, people will speculate about the message of this poem, the only copy of which goes missing. 2119: Just over 100 years in the future, much of the planet has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early 21st century as he chases the ghost of one poem, “A Corona for Vivien.” When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of a brutal crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.
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