With a few months remaining until graduation, Cadet Tessryn Ri plans to spend time with her friends until she can join the Ontara, a military branch responsible for maintaining the peace. Suddenly, a mysterious plague shakes Tessryn's world, and leaves a trail of death across the Alliance. Tessryn manifests unexplained powers, and in her search for answers, she causes a death which threatens what anonymity she had in the Alliance. When the wrong people learn of her powers, Tessryn finds herself at the center of a conspiracy that runs deeper than the known galaxy. In order to survive, she must stop those behind the destruction of a civilization. Even if grief threatens to tear her heart apart, a galaxy lies in peril.