Agents Mia and Derec reveal a conspiracy after robot bodyguards fail to protect key leaders from an assassination attempt during a conference uniting the Spacers, Settlers, and Earth representatives.

Coren Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. Lanra's troubles begin when Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, is murdered during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis. The question is, why? The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victim, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.

The Third Law of Robotics states that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. After the diplomatic failures of the Spacer mission on Earth, Ambassador Ariel Burgess and roboticist Derec Avery are recalled to their home planet, Aurora. Their situation only worsens when they arrive, as they become suspects in another murder—one that could only have been committed by a non-human. On a world with a 20-to-1 robot-to-human population, is it possible a robot could have violated the Three Laws governing its behavior—and if so, why? Or is something far more sinister at work?