This is the second book in the saga from the Vorkosigans and introduces Mls Vorkosigan. At age seventeen, Miles is allowed to take the entrance examinations to the top notch armed service academy; he goes by the created but manages to break both his legs within the obstacle course, washing out before he begins. Blaming himself for the loss of life of his aged grandfather, Mls leaves for the Beta Colony to go to his grandmother accompanied by his bodyguard, Sergeant Bothari and Bothari’s child, Elena. Rumours of Miles’s mercenary operations place his father Aral under politics attack, and Miles must make his way home to stop the plot.