Life for twelve year old Mickie Dalton is miserable. Cold, abusive parents make his home intolerable. So when Mickie meets a young couple in the park, an escape opens up. They tell him an astounding truth - Mickie is not a human being, though just what he is, where he came from and how he came to be on Earth are all a mystery. Mickie joins his new guardians on an immense spaceship that travels the Universe, even between galaxies, trading with many intelligent species on other planets as he seeks out his origins and nature. Slowly, he begins to develop extraordinary powers that must have been part of his people. As he also starts to find strange hints of what may have happened, he learns that he is one of an ancient race, the Pfafth who once ruled over forty galaxies but vanished without trace a million years ago. But other forces learn of Mickie's presence, huge forces of immense evil and power that were the cause of the destruction of the Pfafth and now they are intent on finding Mickie and his vanished people so that they can complete the destruction of that ancient race. A million year old war has started again and Mickie must draw on all his astonishing, growing powers and seek the help of allies, some strange, some beautiful, some terrifying as he seeks his people to prevent their end.