Two heirs to an Indian Begum's estate -- Dr. Francois Sarrasin, a Frenchman, and Professor Schultz, a German -- split 525 million francs. With his half of the money, Sarrasin builds an ideal community called Frankville in the northwestern United States. Schultz uses his half to construct a city called Steeltown, which produces weapons of destruction. Of course, their ideologies clash . . . literally and figuratively.

Includes a new introduction by literary scholar Darrell Schweitzer, as well as an original frontispiece portrait of Jules Verne.