People called this planet Prism, an organosilicate world - a world of glass, beauty and disorder. Local life is worthy of surprise and admiration, and its study promises considerable profits. There is a lot of light and few minerals - and for them there is a merciless competition between the inhabitants of Prisma.

Evan flew here to find out why contact with the research station was lost. He found a destroyed camp and people being eaten by local life forms. He himself was on the verge of death. He would have died if he had not met a representative of the local intelligence. Alien, as strange and unusual as everything living here.

Friends met where no one expected to find them, enemies, however, too.