Jane is a 16-year-old misfit living in an asteroid-altered Earth of the future. Like most girls her age, true love and real happiness seem forever beyond her. Until she meets Silver. He's a robot, yes, but he looks human. To Jane, he's everything she has ever dreamed of. But those who created Silver realize that they have created not just artificial humans, but a race of gods whose very existence could threaten human history. And every last one of them must be destroyed.
Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale--a beautiful, tragic, sensual, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future.

Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood. . . .

For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion.

Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city's violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see--not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete?