The moon Haven contains the harshest environments for life among the seventy habitable planets within the CoDominium sphere. After Haven's discovery, this distant moon quickly becomes the center of a major lawsuit over its ownership. When the New Church of Universal Harmony buys the Charter, the big mining companies send their agents to find a way to muscle their way in. The Harmonies quickly find themselves on the defensive. Behind the lines, some of the biggest industrial magnates, the Bronson and DeSilva families, are pulling strings to secure rights to strip-mine Haven of its resources and mineral wealth. This battle only intensifies when shimmer stones, the most valuable gems in the known universe, are discovered on Haven. The Bureau of Relocation sees Haven, more than a year's spaceship journey from Earth, as the perfect dumping ground for political dissidents and criminals. Within the CoDominium, there's a fracture between U.S. and Soviet interests; both powers want to use Haven for their own means. Meanwhile, the New Church of Universal Harmony is finding its lands overwhelmed with undesirables from Earth who neither want to work or live a meditative life. This conflict quickly turns violent as the newcomers scheme to steal food and goods from the non-violent Harmonies, who see their culture undergo a major shift to confront the new realities brought by the displaced transportees from Earth. When Kennicott and Dover Mineral Development send their agents to fight over the newly discovered hafnium and shimmer stone deposits, the violence and bloodshed is ratcheted up. Finally, the CoDominium Marines are sent in to save the day-but for whom: the Harmonies, the miners, the convicts, or their puppet masters back on Earth?