Ariadne of Spindrift, Imperial Ambassador and trouble shooter general, has been ordered to investigate, rumors of pirates interfering with Rii, a remote protectorate world on the Empire's periphery. She arrives accompanied by a squad of armored marines and Junior Lieutenant Rhodri Morgan, both borrowed from the heavy cruiser Agamemnon, to find matters much worse than she had been told. Now Ari, Morgan and a handful of marines must fight for their lives while rescuing the local monarch's pregnant queen and attempting to rally the people of Rii against the invaders, led by their infamous king, Edgar Van Zant and, of course, no one in the Diplomatic service had mentioned to the misogynistic and xenophobic Rii that Lady Ariadne is a Syrenkan, a Mermaid descended from genetically engineered human colonists.