Sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing to do. Hank Beveridge and Lieutenant Newton Shapiro are a couple of nice guys whose worlds just happen to collide. Hank's getting up in years and Newton has his first independent field command. On Third World, people are few and far between, and women of marrying age are scarce as hen's teeth. Yet Hank's been thinking along those lines for some time. He's still looking. Newton has his own job to do, and no matter who gets hurt, someone is under arrest until he gets them before a judge. Unless someone thinks of something pretty darned fast, a real tragedy is going to happen. The Empire is a long ways away, but the locals are at least peaceable.