27th century metahuman Heliodore 'Hel' Brand is a genetically engineered warrior who has the physical strength and endurance of a demigod. Like many of his fellow metahumans, his immense gifts are wasted in the mines of Gehenna for one of the oligarchs of the Maia system, Mairon Salai. When it is discovered that he is a Starsong savant, one of a few who can hear the singing of the Empyrean Gate, he is forced to embark on a dangerous series of missions that may provide the necessary clues to open an entire faster-than-light network. Hel may be heading for either a trap or some of kind of enlightenment, and this leaves him to navigate a precarious game with only his passions to guide him—including his love for an oligarch's son. The stakes are the fate of an entire star system. Hel must solve the mystery of Starsong, escape Mairon's influence, and fight as a rebellion soldier to free the miners, but all he really wants is to see Marcus again.