A year and a half after the events on Eros, the solar system is still in danger. Thanks to Detective Miller and Holden's crew, the alien protomolecule crashed onto Venus instead of Earth, but that didn't end it. An alien software virus continues to operate under the dense cloud cover of the planet and builds something incomprehensible and, apparently, very creepy and dangerous out of it. In addition to this, a new problem has emerged. On Jupiter's moon Ganymede, a creature easily destroyed an entire detachment of Martian soldiers. Mars blames the Earth for what happened, the Earth blames Mars - the fragile world is cracking again ...And the daughter of the botanist Praksidika Menga was kidnapped from the kindergarten. An inconsolable father turns to Jim Holden, the captain of the Rocinante missile carrier, engaged on behalf of the Outer Planets Alliance, in a noble cause in the fight against space pirates, for help in finding a missing child. During the search for the stolen girl, the crew of the ship suddenly discovers that once again the fate of all mankind is in their hands.