In the future, humanity has colonized hundreds of planets. The upstart colony Carthage now rules most of humanity's major worlds, including Earth itself, with fleets of autonomous, AI-driven warships and armies of robotic infantry. Freedom from their empire is found only in rough outer worlds on the distant fringes of settled space.

On Galapagos, a free world, newly elected Minister-General Reginald Ellison had hoped he'd seen the end of war. He spent his youth fighting in battles across his planet's oceans and islands and his later years working to build a coalition of peace among the world's fragmented nations. The arrival of an unnerving android ambassador from the distant imperial planet of Carthage threatens his world's hopes for a free and peaceful future.

On Earth, the machines patrol the post-apocalyptic ruins of bombed-out megacities, left over from Earth's war with Carthage. In the fallen megalopolis of Chicago, a young scavenger makes a discovery that could empower Earthlings to finally fight back, but could also endanger everyone he loves.

On Carthage, the rulers of humanity enjoy extreme wealth and luxury, while machines carry out all forms of labor and provide for their every whim. Audrey Caracala, daughter of Carthage's top political leader, has led a protected existence, groomed to help her family rule the known galaxy. Now her family's enemies hunt her as she searches for her missing brother in the dangerous, unfamiliar territory of the Carthaginian underworld, where she begins to face hard truths about the machines and about her own family's legacy.

Three people, on three very different worlds, must confront alternate faces of the ever-evolving machines, which spin their own designs beyond the vision of their human masters, forging a new kind of empire that will be ruled by no man.