Rex Bader is a private investigator from earth who is called to Island Three at the LaGrange Point to solve the mystery of the missing professor and father of the entire LaGrange Point project. At the same time as the investigation, the cases of Wide Syndrome (a contagious kind of claustrophobia) are on the increase and there are talks of revolution. Who is behind all three scenarios and what can Rex do to save the day?

L-5, a point in the Earth-Moon System where orbits are forever and the new age of Freedom and Plenty can begin. Now they're trying to kill the man in charge of the first L-5 colony, and Private Eye Rex Bader is the man who will have to find and stop them. But who are the killers? The Soviets? The Mafia? "Friends of the Earth?" Only time—and blood—will tell.

Rex Bader has finally solved the mystery of who is trying to kill the Director of the first L-5 space colony. The Mafia? The KGB? Anti-Space fanatics? all three. The question now is can Rex continue to protect the Director against his many enemies. If he can't the history of man in space may be short indeed.

[From the Baen Book edition] Island One, the U.S.'s first space colony and symbol of an American Renaissance, is in trouble. Low morale, shoddy workmanship, unexplained malfunctions and avoidable accidents have become a way of life. Is it the Russians? Home-grown anti-technologists? Arabs afraid of cheap solar power from Space—or something even more sinister? When the President ordered secret agent Peter Kapitz to find out what was going on, Peter's first discovery is that the Soviets are indeed involved. His second is that they are not alone. He will probably not live to make a third.

The world situation has become so confused that a young American living on Negative Income Tax finds himself drafted into an international espionage assignment by no less than 5 opposing interests. It is a story of humour and adventure that will be hard to forget.