In 2195, mankind's perception of galactic dominance comes to an abrupt end when an interstellar disaster sparks a war against an unstoppable enemy.

Matt Archer's cruise ship plummets into an alien city, wiping out the city and its occupants. Treating the incident as a first strike, the aliens attack starships sent from Earth to investigate. The first ship on the scene at the disaster site – an ordinary civilian tourist ship from Earth – finds itself trapped in a hostile alien star system. Thousands of light years from home, civilians and starship crew alike must battle overwhelming odds to escape death.

As the conflict intensifies, the alien warmongers' dire motivations become clear. They're driven by an innate fear passed from generation to generation, a core belief held since the dawn of their empire's creation. 30,000 years in the past, their ancestors committed an unspeakable sin upon the very gods they now worship, and now they suspect the gods have returned to seek a cruel and terrible vengeance.