Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- First transformation -- Marching on Washington -- Everything was worth doing -- First useful gene : bacillus thuringiensis and its many inventors -- Gifts of God -- Genes that love poisons -- Triumphs of tinkering -- Forces in opposition -- Seed wars -- Tomato that ate calgene -- Tremors of anticipation -- Summers of triumph, summers of discord -- Power plays -- Backlash -- Wheels come off -- Deluge -- Global claims -- Perched on a precipice -- Infinite horizons -- Epilogue.