The women want to embrace learning and distance themselves from the slavery of their winter lifestyle. In the second, longer section, the descendants of Yuli deal with issues related to the coming spring as well as the leadership of the settlement. Yuli learns and grows in the cruelty of the underground civilization, discovering his unwillingness to join a priesthood of bullies and nurturing his longing for the openness of the sky. Eventually he leaves this place to return to the surface and is a founding member of a civilization above. The first section of the book focuses on Yuli and initial upbringing as part of a nomadic hunting tribe followed by his discovery and exploration of an underground society that is more civilized but less connected to the surface. As the planet heats, the people rediscover arts such as carpentry, fashion, astronomy and agriculture. In winter, the shaggy and brutal Phagors reign, with the more human 'sons of Freyr' having regressed to a subsistence-level society. The sentient species have thrived or hibernated according to their respective adaptability to the season.

This book begins as spring is beginning to awaken the long-dormant planet. Freyr is much stronger, but the elliptic path Batalix and Helliconia follow around this sun is much longer and creates a great year in which many centuries are spent experiencing an arctic winter before melting into a near tropical summer. The planet's revolution around the nearer and weaker Batalix is similar in length to an Earth year. Helliconia's twin suns, Batalix and Freyr are locked in an inter-relational orbit. As a gripping tale with relatable characters and fascinating plot points, it fails. As a scientific and sociological experiment about what life on a planet with a binary star system might be like, this book largely succeeds.

Trillion Year Spree by Brian W. Aldiss