Colonists battle it out for planet domination in this startling tale that depicts the human psychology and desperate nature of colonisation. Seeking a new home for Earth's inhabitants, Nocturne's first colonisation vessels reported that they had landed on success - a liveable planet around a long-lived sun. In response, a single ship followed with less than half the requested supplies, manned by a class of people too different from those who had first settled there. Now, a century and a half later, the leader of an unwanted people struggles against prejudice, a shrewd woman fights to overcome injury and protect her place in the planet's power structure, and two young men find themselves caught in the middle of an ambitious political battle.