Peter La Nague unwittingly finds himself at the head of rebels who want to destroy the rotten Empire of the outer worlds. He is supported by flinters, masters of all types of weapons, and a billionaire in a flying castle - he is thirsty for revenge. But the revolutionaries' plans hang by a thread. Either because of a sniper with a ray gun, walled up in a column of the throne room, or because of a crazy accomplice, or because of the Thark aliens plying on the border of the Empire and spying on people...