pt. 1. Edge of knowledge -- ch. 1. Tied up with string -- pt. 2. Dilemma of space, time, and the quanta -- ch. 2. Space, time, and the eye of the beholder -- ch. 3. Of warps and ripples -- ch. 4. Microscopic weirdness -- ch. 5. Need for a new theory : general relativity vs. quantum mechanics -- pt. 3. Cosmic symphony -- ch. 6. Nothing but music : the essentials of superstring theory -- ch. 7. "Super" in superstrings -- ch. 8. More dimensions than meet the eye -- ch. 9. Smoking gun : experimental signatures -- pt. 4. String theory and the fabric of spacetime -- ch. 10. Quantum geometry -- ch. 11. Tearing the fabric of space -- ch. 12. Beyond strings : in search of m-theory -- ch. 13. Black holes : a string/m-theory perspective -- ch. 14. Reflections on cosmology -- pt. 5. Unification in the twenty-first century -- ch. 15. Prospects.