The pilgrims make it to a blood-covered Chronos Keep, where they discuss a Shrike superstition that pilgrims must come in prime numbers to be granted a wish, but with the disappearance of Masteen, they are now 6.
As the Ousters begin their war, Hoyt spots a templar who might be Het Masteen in the distance walking towards the Time Tombs.
The Consul begins his tale with an audio recording from an old comlog.
The narrator, a man named Merin, is visiting the tomb of a woman named Siri on the planet Maui-Covenant. Merin and Siri were in a relationship, which occurs over a handful of reunions in which she lives an entire lifespan while he remains young, having accrued time debt due to his voyages aboard a spaceship as part of a project to build a farcaster portal on Maui-Covenant, connecting it to the Hegemony.
Merin meets and falls in love with Siri while on Maui-Covenant. From her, he learns that many of the local population of Maui-Covenant are Separatists, resistant to joining the Hegemony.
On one of Merin’s visits to Siri, they dive deep into the ocean and use a translation disk that allows them to speak with the dolphins, whom the locals refer to as the Sea Folk.
On another visit, Merin and Siri, along with Merin’s friend, Mike Osho, attend a festival, where Mike is set upon by Separatist locals - one of them is Siri’s cousin Bertol. They harass him for working under the Hegemony. A fight ensues in which Mike is killed by Bertol and Bertol is killed by Merin, after which Merin flees with Siri.
The story cuts back to the day Merin is visiting Siri’s tomb, and we discover this is the day the farcaster is being activated. Siri and Merin’s son and grandchildren are there as well.
We cut to a memory of Merin’s 6th reunion with Siri, when she is 70 and vacationing with Merin. She expresses her concerns that the farcaster will destroy their culture and planet and asks if anything can be done to resist its construction. Merin informs her that nothing can stop it.
Back in Siri’s tomb, Merin’s son, Donel, presents him with a box of items Siri left for him. The comlog inside the box contains several diary entries Siri has left for Merin.
Merin leaves Siri’s tomb, and the farcaster is turned on, but it explodes because of a bomb that Merin himself had planted.
Merin’s recording ends and the Consul reveals that he is the grandson of Merin and Siri.
The Consul shares that he moved up the ranks working under the Hegemony, but harbored intention is to destroy it from within.
Eventually he is sent to Hyperion to deal with the Ousters but becomes a double agent when he learns that the Ousters are not barbarians.
Furthermore, the Ousters reveal that the “Big Mistake” that led to the destruction of Old Earth had been planned by TechnoCore and made to look like an accident.
When the Consul returns to Meina Gladstone, he reveals most of this information, but leaves out the fact that the Ousters have promised to give him a device that can open the time tombs and release the Shrike.
The Ousters send scientists to Hyperion to try opening the time tombs, but they refuse. The Consul murders them and uses the device to release the Shrike. He then betrays both the Ousters and Gladstone in the hopes that drawing the Hegemony into a battle with the Ousters on Hyperion will destroy the Hegemony.
The pilgrims come to the conclusion that the Consul has actually been a triple agent and debate what to do with him. Eventually they decide to keep going together to the time tombs, as it is their best chance of survival.
In the epilogue, the book ends abruptly with the Pilgrims making their way to meet with the Shrike, across the desert, singing a song from the Wizard of Oz.