Former smuggler and now Empress, Hale Bristol has returned to her home planet to take her rightful position in the palace. Her sisters and parents are killed, and the Indran Empire teeters on the brink of war. Hale urgently needs to conclude an alliance with neighboring worlds, otherwise she will not survive... But when peace negotiations turn into a massacre, Hale realizes that someone from her inner circle has betrayed her. Now the only salvation is the good old skills of a smuggler and... the help of her former boss, unless, of course, he kills her. But Hale is ready to risk her life to save her world.