A year and a half after the events on Eros, the Solar System is still in danger. Thanks to the detective Miller and Holden’s crew, the alien protoproto-molecule instead of Earth collapsed onto Venus—but that didn’t put an end to it. The alien program virus continues to act beneath the planet’s thick cloud cover, building something incomprehensible and, judging by everything, very terrifying and dangerous out of it.
In addition, a new problem has appeared. On Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, some creature easily destroyed an entire squad of Martian soldiers. Mars blames Earth; Earth blames Mars—fragile world once again cracks… And from a kindergarten, the daughter of scientist Praxidika Meng is kidnapped.
The grieving father turns to Jim Holden for help in finding the missing child—the captain of the Rocinante, engaged on behalf of the Outer Planets Alliance in a noble cause against space pirates. During the search for the stolen girl, the crew discovers that yet again, the fate of all humankind is in their hands.