Earth, locked into a degrading status quo by the Five Races, aliens determined to watch earth's civilization rot from within. But when Kavin Dubaire travels to the planet Tiartha, one of the few colonies allowed Earth, he makes a momentous discovery about the aliens. Then a new alien race triggers an interstellar war. For Kavin, Deidre von Holstead, and the whole human race, all bets are now off!