To prepare their young daughter Lisele for her role as heir to the Hulzein dynasty, Bran Tregare and Rissa Kerguelen send her on an important diplomatic mission. But a strange gravitational anomaly strands the crew of the March Hare in orbit around a lost colony where the barbaric remnants of UET still maintain a reign of fear. Lisele is forced to grow up quickly and call upon all her Hulzein training to try to save her ship from destruction.