Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor has struggled to do his patriotic duty after losing the love of his life: Empress Mercedes de Arango. Embroiled in a desperate war, the Solar League has no pity for his grief and he cannot afford the distraction of longing for a woman he can never have. For duty alone-as a soldier and as a father-Tracy enters into a marriage of state. Now a member of the royal family that once shunned him for being a commoner, he fights to stabilize the throne threatened by civil war. That the throne belongs to Mercedes, and he's forced to see her every day, is fresh salt in an old wound. Tracy and Mercedes face an even greater danger than their unrequited love, however. A mysterious force is destroying all in its path and will lead to extinction on a galactic scale unless it's stopped. Against a tragic backdrop of war, loss, and longing, can Tracy and Mercedes ever find their way back to each other? Or will long-kept secrets about the human race itself see an end to life as they know it...