Kris Longknife has at long last been given her first independent command - in the very remote system of Chance. For an officer with a rep for bucking the system, it's an assignment that's as much exile as promotion. But where Kris goes, trouble seems to follow, and she hasn't been on the job long when she captures pirates sabotaging the buoys that mark the jump points for interstellar travel. She soon learns that the pirates are hiding the location of an uncharted and unpopulated planet of miraculous technology - technology that Kris must ensure never fall into the wrong hands.