Teenage orphan Jack Morgan arrives on the planet Semalin inhabited by Golwyns and with him the poet-warrior symbiote - the dragon K'da and Alison, the carrier of the symbiote - the dragon K'da Tanim. Alison, as a professional bugbear, is taken into use by Neverlin and Colonel Frost. The villains who destroyed the scout ships of the Draycos people still want to destroy the refugee fleet - the surviving K'da dragons and their Shontin symbiotes. Jack is helped by Uncle Virgil, the artificial intelligence that controls the Essenei spaceship. There is danger everywhere and their only hope is ingenuity and cooperation.