Tzenni Boccamera wasn't a soldier or a diplomat. She was an engineer. But when Tzenni's sister Catha was captured by soldiers from a rival Spire, there was no one else to go to Catha's rescue.Tzenni didn't expect the rescue to involve a sarcastic bodyguard, a plot to bring down the Spire, or an alien species. And she certainly hadn't meant to fall in love. . .

The Hawkwood brothers want salvage rights to a fallen Spire. Ligeia Boccamera wants to rescue her sisters. Facade Blue wants to see the culmination of a plan four hundred years in the making, and no one has any idea what the alien grues want, or even how to talk to them. No one but Tzenni Boccamera. . .