Vivian Brosch stands at the end of her journey, a war criminal in the eyes of the Yasheni, the aliens humanity has warred with for an entire century. Yet is it not them she fears, but a new threat that would destroy their entire species and her own if they cannot learn to work together. Her only option now to win their trust is to delve through the years of bloodshed that led her, once an outcast trying to survive on the fringe of a bloated empire, to being its most-feared inquisitor.