Humans and aliens have formed a loose government called the Earth Alliance, with treaties that guarantee humans are subject to alien laws when on alien soil. But alien laws often seem senseless, and minor violations draw outrageous punishments—from death to the loss of a first-born child.
Miles Flint grapples with three cases that have collided: a stolen space-yacht filled with dead bodies, two kidnapped human children, and a human woman on the run to avoid alien prosecution, trying to become one of the Disappeared. Flint must enforce the law—giving the children to aliens, solving the murders, and arresting the woman for running from the legal system. But how can he enforce laws that are unjust? How can he sacrifice innocents to a system he’s not sure he believes in? How can Miles Flint do the right thing in a universe where the right thing is very, very wrong?