Being a PI in the high-tech, magical city of Manzala requires more than street-smarts. Martin Aten makes do with a lifetime of experience in software engineering. Accompanied by the voice of his wife Jean and his memories of days gone by, he lives each life day-to-day, just scraping through. But every once in a while, a job comes along that's bigger than it looks. And when the city's most successful techno-dwarf hires Martin to recover a stolen, prized personal possession-the job already looks massive. From the dingy back-streets of Manzala to the planets beyond, this case is going to take Martin farther than any other case before. The hunt for a stolen item brings him new friends, new enemies, and-if he's very, very lucky-the chance to save Manzala from a danger it doesn't know is descending on it. Regardless, he knows he's not returning to Manzala the same man who left it.