Science has developed the ability to revive the dead, providing there is no brain trauma and they can get to the body before decomposition sets in. Under certain circumstances, a corpse can be re-animated after several hours, or even days. If they get to the corpse in time, a fully functioning copy of the original can be reconstituted, with all its memories intact. It is the same person, with all the legal and property rights, etc the person had before death.

Unfortunately, something isn't quite the same. The reborns are different somehow. Their personality changes, their interests change, as do their likes and dislikes. Its sort of like meeting someone you knew a long time ago: they are recognizable, but they are not the same. They act the same, but to people who knew them well, they become strangers.

The reborns themselves feel uncomfortable around their former family and friends, and start to hang out with other people. Eventually, they lose interest in the "living" altogether, and simply start associating with other reborns.

Our story begins when a young married couple, very much in love are struck by tragedy. The wife is killed in a skiing accident, but quick action by the rescue team and the cold temperatures allow for a full reconstitution. But the marriage quickly starts to unravel. THe man is still desperately in love with his wife, but she becomes indifferent to him. She is polite and friendly, but the spark is gone, and he can sense it. The couple drifts apart, no matter what he tries to do to keep them together, and she eventually leaves him and joins a group of other reborns who only spend time with one another.

The husband is desperate. He is being torn apart, he stalks her, he follows her all over the world, but she treats him as a stranger. She wishes him no ill, is fond of him in a cold and distant way, but she no longer loves him. Eventually, the protagonist realizes the only way he will be able to approach his wife emotionally and intimately again is if he dies too...

This is more than science fiction, its not about a new technolgy and its effect on man and society, it is a meditation on love and marriage, death and grief. I often wonder if Silverberg had just suffered a divorce or had been widowed when he wrote this. Powerful stuff.