When a Calpurnian faction leader kidnaps the young son of the Guardian of the city of Beira on Menaechmi, it's up to his gaura, the intrepid Caralys, to find a way to rescue the boy. Getting a child off a Calpurnian warship in orbit safely seems impossible, but Caralys has an ace up her sleeve, a freelance agent named Bister. Bister wants Menaechmi's support to repeal the Isolation that keeps her people imprisoned on Inanna, and what better way to get it than to have the Guardian owe her a favor? With the help of Boral, a young Morriganian electromancer on Menaechmi for his first port call, Bister lays her plans to trick the Calpurnians out of their prize. But when the Calpurnians threaten the unarmed cities of Menaechmi, the stakes get higher than one boy's life. The fate of Menaechmi is in play, and Caralys must roll the Golden Lady's dice to save her family and her world.