Cal Wheams wanders into the Hangman's Noose and is drawn into an adventure along with Meserplunkt the pirate when Alexandria, the owner of the Hangman's Noose, learns that she is the sole surviving heir to the throne on Theta X. In order to keep the planet from being taken over by the Dragons from the Dragonworld she must gather a small group of pirates and others to go through subspace and rally the remaining humans on the planet in defense of Theta X.

Along the way Cal falls in love with a beautiful lady pirate captain and runs into old nemesis that tries to interfere as Cal works to help Alexandria forge a peace treaty between the humans on Theta X and the Dragons on the Dragonworld.