In this post-apocalyptic future, the universe is cold and dark. Limited resources force humanity and two other races into cooperation against the Grays, whose spiral warping may have been the downfall of the very universe relied upon for survival. Only a few thousand years after The War of Suns, humans cling to hope in space stations and hop star systems as space grows ever darker, and colder. Siblings Shuzhana and Yarrow salvage for their meek existence, observed by a Pleiadean, hired for transport by a government official, and saviors to a member of the dying reptilian race.