Rrrlana'vaha'sssaleath, premier t'hessath dancer among the Snowmanes of the Forge, 500 years from now, finds herself embroiled in adventure and intrigue when all she intended was to pick some 'htang beans for the Festival of Sss'Aleath. Before she quite knows what's happened, she's met Captain Allen MacDougal and Cmdr. Jeremy Branfield of the PKF Wolf Class Star Destroyer Trident, on the lam from the pirates who have engaged them in battle. She must help them tell their story to the elders of her village before the pirates find them. Before all is said and done, her simple decision to take a chance and offer comfort to two strangers has turned her life and that of many others upside down and inside out, to complete a tapestry over twenty thousand years in the making.