For Harry Watt, Bounty Hunter, simply doing what he's told was never an option. When the best hydrologist on Earth goes AWOL after first helping himself to some company funds, Judge Headlock, Harry's employer and nemesis, instructs him to bring back the runaway to face justice. A trip to Mars onboard one of the new ships with the StrateLine Drive sounds like fun, but Harry soon discovers something stinks about this job, and it's not one of his socks. He realizes he must first travel to Venus Station, but it's not easy to be in two places at once. And getting framed for murder doesn't help matters. So with the help of his dead partner, an erstwhile assistant, and a host of lady friends, Harry embarks on a rip-roaring ride through the Solar System in a bid to prevent a Martian civil war, and maybe earn a few credits along the way.