A rich Komarran product owner fleet has been impounded at Graf Train station in faraway Quaddiespace after a bloody incident relating to the convoy’s Barrayaran armed forces escort. Lord Kilometers Vorkosigan and his wife, Lady Ekaterin, have other activities on their thoughts, such as getting home in time to wait the long-awaited births of their 1st children. But when duty phone calls in the voice of Barrayar’s Emperor Gregor, Miles, as imperial auditor, has no choice but to solution.

Waiting around on Graf Train station are diplomatic snarls, tangled loyalties, old friends, new enemies, racial tensions, lies and deceptions, mysterious disappearances, and a contest with time forever against death in horrifying new forms. The downside of being a high-level troubleshooter comes when problems starts shooting back.