Major Rory of the Ronan Officer Lineage, Active Duty Division, was raised to be a soldier, but she falls in love instead. Her dreams for a family and home of her own are shattered to an endless nightmare when her husband and young son are killed before her eyes. The military orders her to a suicide mission but the heartbroken soldier has seen enough of death. To save her squad, she disobeys orders and seals her own fate in the process. Beaten, broken, and branded, she is sentenced not to the death she hoped for, but to a lifetime in a distant planet's underground penal colony doing hard labor. A lifelong homophobe, Rory is horrified when she learns she must sleep with a young woman, Rabbit, in order to survive the frigid nights. Rabbit's sweet innocence confuses Rory's long-held beliefs. When a sliver of a chance is offered to reclaim her freedom, Rory will use any means to achieve it, including allowing herself to fall in love again. However, this time, she's falling in love with a woman named Rabbit.