The novel takes place in the same region of space, but 30,000 years earlier than Hugo Award-winning "Flame over the Abyss". The new novel explores the clash of cultures on a galactic scale. Two different human space fleets move toward a distant planet with different goals—one seeks trade connections, the other new slaves. When the collision robs them of the ability to travel, they are forced to drift in space for many years until an alien race living on the planet creates advanced enough technology to save them. But the aliens have their own plans.