 The title comes from Andrew Marvell's poem about Oliver Cromwell, who, Marvell said,

The story sub-divides into chapters which initially seem to be completely separate, but a connection is starting to be formed in Chapter III.The first chapter explains the origins of the time machine later used by the Otherhood.Caspar Last has created a time machine primarily as a solution for a mathematical riddle, rather than the desire to make use of it.