In a future where time-scanning can prove ancestry with absolute precision, Thatcher Blitt turns one simple truth into a fortune: people are desperate to know where they come from. He launches Genealogy, Inc., a booming enterprise that promises customers famous forebears, hidden noble ties, and the comforting illusion that almost anyone can be linked to greatness if the search goes back far enough. Ambitious and shrewd, Blitt builds his empire on vanity, status, and the hunger to belong among the exceptional. But the man who sells pedigree to the world has never dared to examine his own. As his obsession with bloodline and rank deepens, he finally demands the answer he has avoided for years. What the scanners reveal is devastatingly ordinary: no kings, no geniuses, no conquerors, only peasants, laborers, and anonymous survivors stretching back into prehistory. In this sharp satire, Blitt's collapse becomes a darkly funny meditation on heredity, self-importance, and the universal human need to matter. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.