When Esmay Suiza found herself in the middle of a space battle, the senior surviving officer, she had no choice but to take command and win. She didn't want to be a hero, but Once A Hero....

Esmay Suiza and Brun Meager should be friends -- they're both bright, brave, likeable and adventurous. But true friendship doesn't run any smoother than true love. Brun thinks Esmay's a stuck-up prig, and Esmay thinks Brun's a spoiled rich brat who's making a play for Barin Serrano, Esmay's first love. So when Brun fails into the hands of a repressive religious militia movement, Esmay finds herself in disgrace, suspected of conniving at the capture. Even Barin has turned against her, and Brun's powerful family doesn't want Esmay anywhere near the rescue attempt. Meanwhile, Brun has to figure out how to survive on a planet where female captives are surgically muted to keep them from contaminating others. Her luck may have run out, but her courage hasn't -- she's determined to free not only herself, but other, younger captives. This burst of initiative imperils her own rescue, and it will take double her own luck to save her.

Their universe is falling apart! Rejuvenants fear the backlash caused by bad drugs; they want to ensure that nothing interferes with their pursuit of long life -- or the profit that comes from promising it to others. Neighbor states fear the aggressive expansion of the Familias Regnant, fuelled by population growth and extended lifespan. Within the Regular Space Service, those who have received experimental rejuvenations fear they may have been given bad drugs on purpose. Esmay Suiza's family fears that her marriage to an offworlder will damage their position. Barin Serrano's family fears that his marriage to a Landbride of Altiplano will damage his career and their reputation. Fear begets violent reactions -- from foreign governments, from great Families determined to maintain or increase their power, from internal rivalries in the Fleet -- and nothing escapes the resultant bloodbath unscathed. As Esmay and Barin struggle to reconcile their families, others have more cosmic struggles to win.

The worst has happened: Fleet is tearing itself apart. Some of the mutineers see injustice in the unequal spread of the rejuvenation drugs that offer virtual immortality to the rich; others are simply thirsty for power, or for blood. The Loyalists, meanwhile, fight desperately to preserve the rule of law in Familias Regnant space.
But when Esmay Suiza-Serrano is unceremoniously booted out of Fleet, the apparent victim of Family politics, she has no idea of the whirlwind of conflict into which she is about to be drawn.