Donovan's Run is a fantastic, thrilling, and mysterious trip through time and space. Two men begin the story: James Donovan, a renowned astrophysicist, and Charles Campbell, a prominent minister, both with a deep interest in the search for sentient creatures in our universe. Donovan desires to find alien life in order to learn from such creatures, as did Campbell, but who also wishes to find God in the cosmos. Thus, begins a tale involving present-day efforts by Donovan to launch a probe into space to carry Bach's Mass in B Minor for any sentient alien life forms, who might find the probe, understand that humanity meant them no harm and come from an advanced intelligence capable of creating such magnificent music. The story progresses into the future with progeny of Donovan and Campbell. After recurrent nuclear wars, pandemics, and worldwide famine, peace returns to Earth, a new religion is born, as is a magnificent space program that ultimately allows humanity to conquer our solar system, and then the Milky Way Galaxy. However, despite every human effort, no sentient alien creatures, or God, are found, leading to the degeneration and death of humanity, leaving the universe to their robots who return to Earth where they searched for the key to reawaken human life.