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 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. While Athena, Pevely's computer who has taken the form of a young woman, strives to humanize herself, Pevely encounters an enigmatic young man on the run, and agrees to help him. A relationship forms, which ends in murder. Pevely is now bound to seek retribution, and winds up opposing powerful corporate hierarchs in the process-hierarchs with their own power-grabbing agenda that cannot but bode ill for the people of the Confederation. The outcome is unpredictable as Pevely's companions face certain death if they try to protect her.