The crew of a sector station—made up of the Transport Network Sefes survivors miraculously saved in a catastrophe, the Mad Bard, and three people, one of whom is the mysterious madman nicknamed the Violinist—turn out to be prisoners on Madanga, a planet isolated by the Control long ago from the rest of the universe due to constant local conflicts. But this is only the first step on their new, deadly path back home. Or toward a place where life might begin to be reborn. Perhaps, if not for the global threat posed by a new, unknown force that not even the order of Aarn can oppose yet. A power that, with a prayer for goodness, destroys trillions of lives and thousands of worlds.