When colonists settled the mining planet Epimetheus they thought it was tide-locked, perpetually keeping the same face to its sun. They were wrong. The casino resort Nightside City, built as a playground for miners and tourists, is about to see its first sunrise, and in a few years the deadly radiation of its star will render it uninhabitable.

So why is someone buying up doomed real estate?

Evicted squatters hire down-on-her-luck private eye Carlisle Hsing to tell them what's going one. She intends to find out who is behind it, and why — if she can do so without getting killed.