Grace is blaming herself for the death of two good men on Kwaide – even Six’s teasing can’t raise a smile at first. A strange first contact on a distant planet might provide a vital clue to Arcan’s past, but it can’t quite cure Grace of her feelings of guilt. When they arrive on Xiantha, they find a stunning planet; hot, sunny and full of colour. For the first time they can start to relax and enjoy a holiday – at least, until the independent Diva is forced to swallow her pride and beg Six to help her out on a very personal matter. His decision will change her future. Meanwhile, back on Valhai, Atheron is grimly determined that nothing is going to stop him this time. He has been laying his plans for revenge, and they include using Grace to bait a trap which will cause the total destruction of the orthogel entity ... —Not all of them can come out of this unscathed ... and what happens on Xiantha will impact their lives forever.

Six and Diva need time to get used to the changes in their relationship, but it looks as if everything will have to wait, because the two trimorphs have disappeared. Only the canths can dimly sense where they are, and what they see appears to greatly distress the animals. Even so, two of the canths insist on accompanying Six and Diva on an insanely suicidal rescue mission, one which will take them right into the heart of the galaxy and the supermassive black hole which lurks there.

Six and Diva are still busy scrapping with each other, but manage to find the time to inadvertently start a revolution on Kwaide. Arcan is prepared to help, but there are schemes to deal with all of them; starting with Six ... ... And there is a new visitor to the system, one who has come from many thousands of light years away to meet Arcan.

Six, Diva and Grace are back laughing together in the sun on Xiantha. Grace seems to have come to terms with the wounds from her fall, and Diva, still blissfully unaware of what a recipe for disaster it might be, is determined to take Six to Coriolis. Then Ledin arrives for a visit, and the magnificent black canth linked to the orthogel entity is discovered to be desperately ill. But Arcan is well, so how can that be possible? And why are the other canths excited, instead of worried? The answers can only be found on Pictoria, but once there, they find the visitor missing, pulled across the galaxy by the force of the Dessite minds. To rescue him will mean risking their own lives on the Dessite homeworld. —But have the Dessites already learned enough to conquer Pictoria and the binary system?

Six and Diva are coming to terms with family life on Xiantha, but on the other side of the galaxy storm clouds are gathering. The Dessites have managed to reach Enara, and have proposed an alliance to conquer both Arcan and the lost animas. Suddenly Arcan finds himself trapped on the Dessite homeworld, fighting a losing battle to survive... ... And everything changes.

Six and Grace are in grave danger, but the morphics can’t be reached. They are far, far away in the Luzon Great Void. It will be down to the next generation to travel into the void to get help. But, even with the help of the canths, will they succeed in finding the morphics? And will they be in time, or will they all be forced into a last, desperate, cataclysmic confrontation?

At four, Six had been thrown out to fend for himself in the uninhabitable zone. Ten years later he is doped and shipped off to another planet as an apprentice. Six was inclined to think that things couldn’t get much worse, but that was before he was thrown into a cell with Diva. On Valhai, The Sellites live their lives shut inside skyrises. So it’s a big deal for Grace to pluck up the courage to defy regulations and venture outside onto the planet – a small first step that will lead to giant changes in her life. She is the only person who can save the donor apprentices – but if she does it will ruin her family, and change her planet forever. “... Science fiction at its very best.” Winner, Readers Favorite Awards, 2011 “... Best speculative fiction ...” Finalist, Parsec Awards, 2011