Kibo-Daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan does not argue with this: he has been trying to cheat death all his life, guided by the rule that turning the board 180 degrees is also fair game. But when the Kibo-Diny Cryo Corporation (an immortal organization dedicated to leading its all-too-mortal frozen shareholders into an unknown future) attempts to open a branch in the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor sends his best crisis specialist to put a stop to it. On Kibo Daini, meanwhile, the generation-long struggle for money and resources is heating up (despite the fact that the frozen citizens have destroyed the very meaning of the word “generation”). Here, Miles discovers a little boy who loves animals and dangerous secrets, a Sleeping Beauty locked in an ice coffin who dreams of rewriting her fairy tale, and a mysterious old woman - a living warning of “Don’t mess with secretaries!” Bribes, corruption, conspiracies, kidnappings - something is rotten on Kibo-Daini, and not only because of problems with energy supplies to the Cryomausoleums. And Miles, as always, is in the middle of trouble...