Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer using the Panoply. His defeat is the multifaceted utopian culture of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a individual interstellar empire spanning many worlds.

His current case: investigating a murderous attack against among the habitats that remaining 900 people dead, a crime that appalls a good hardened cop like Dreyfus. But then his investigation uncovers something a lot more critical than mass slaughter-a covert story by an enigmatic entity who looks for nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band.

In a short time, the Panoply detectives are fighting against something even worse than tyranny, in challenging that will lead to even more devastation and even more death. And Dreyfus will quickly realize that to save what is valuable, you might have to damage it.