The Keepers of the Contingent World starts where The Keepers of the Lightning Brain (first book in the sequel to the Lightning Brain Series) ends: December 2157 in Washington. Aided by Indira - the AI-empowered Singularity she created twenty years earlier and using her assumed name - Irani Ramani - Electra Kittner begins reconstructing her personal and professional worlds. They subtly maneuver two sets of twins (all are Electra's unwitting clones) who have returned to college after setbacks suffered in the previous novel when "rescuing" Electra from a subterranean desert fortress where Indira had kept her alive by putting her in a brumation-like state of suspended animation twenty years ago. But nothing returns to normal. A pandemic (the X-Virus), Cyberspace terrorism, greedy corporations, and power-hungry governments roil the world's climates (Environmental, Health, Social, Technological, Political, Economic) as repercussions from melting polar ice caps and other disrupting events cause tectonic shifts above and below the surface.