Regnar, Crown Prince-Designate of The Imperium, meets a pleasant musician, Lethos, whom he hopes will be a good friend. He is greatly distressed to find out that Lethos has a disease which the doctors say is final, and that he may have only five or six months to live. Determined to find a cure, Regnar will undertake whatever that may require. As he researches everything known about the disease, the discovery that the girl he loves has also contracted it adds urgency to his effort.