Galaxy Press is an "old era" printing shop. It continues to use hot metal typesetting and letter press printing in the last year of the twentieth century, while everywhere else computer technology has revolutionized the graphic arts industry. The company is owned by Simon Goldberg, who finances the shop in an effort to keep alive the memory of his family's printing company in Poland before the Second World War. The narrator is a Linotype operator. Along with the other printers at Galaxy Press, he practices the trade he knows has been transformed in the world beyond the shop. As the year, and the century, ends, Galaxy Press's days are numbered. Mr. Goldberg is in declining health, and his financial resources are dwindling. Galaxy's End attempts to depict the moment civilization slips from the substance of reality (hot metal printing) to the insubstantial essence of digital technology.