모래송어와 하나가 됨으로써 신(神) 황제가 된 레토 2세는 3000여 년에 이르는 기간 동안 우주 제국을 다스린다. 그 사이 아라키스는 녹화사업으로 인해 사막이 급격히 줄어들었고 모래벌레의 수도 급감하여 '멜란지'의 생산은 황제에 의해 제한되고 있었으며, 그가 필요한 양만큼만 공급하고 있었다. 때문에 이를 기반으로 강력한 권력을 거머쥔 레토 2세의 폭정에, 반란세력들이 끊임없이 황제 암살 시도를 거듭한다.

Book Four in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles--the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's savior, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past thirty-five hundred years.

Leto's rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has made not only his appearance but his morality inhuman. A rebellion, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family, has risen to oppose the despot's rule. But Siona is unaware that Leto's vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted--or could possibly conceive....