Nia Courant is an interstellar lawyer at Avend University in the space-station city Wendis. Gyle Martan is a university official. Both outsiders here, they are engaged to be married. They'd rather work on their troubled relationship than be caught up in an attack on Wendis by the interstellar empire called the Faxen Union.

But they aren't hapless civilians. Nia can wage a war of legal words. Martan was an anti-terror agent for the Faxen Union before he defected to Wendis. He's ready, willing, and terrifyingly able to defend the city. But first he has to learn the truth about his past and face his worst adversary: himself.