Five hundred years into the future, Pevely Keiser is the capo of the criminal organization called Temmen. Temmen runs itself, for the most part, with only a few lethal nudges from Pevely to keep people in line. Lately she has two things on her mind. She wants to do something good and useful with the funds that accrue to the gang. And she wants a companion or two to help her...and perhaps to share her bed, for she well knows it's lonely at the top. Now she has a chance to snag a billion in cash. But there's a catch: two different planets control the money, and will go to any lengths to see that it is delivered to the right place at the right time. Pevely has help: a ne'er-do-well young man with a checkered past, and a teen-age woman who loves the desert world where the money is now, and who engages in a secret rebellion that could get Pevely killed.