Safiya has run away again and this time she's gotten herself into deeper trouble than she could have ever imagined. As a result, she is pulled into a centuries old conflict between the colonizing off-worlders of Terra and the resistance fighters of the MFDU. Fortunately, the Ambassador of the Sovereign Tribes, first son of the High Chief of Am'maah, offers her asylum but when its revealed that prophecies from the sacred histories speaking about the trial times when the people of Terra will be tested by vice and disease spreading through the lands are at hand, his help may not be enough. And when the cipher key, an ancient artifact believed to be able to decode the scriptures for revealing a message that will save the people of Terra during the trial times is found by the MFDU the stage is set for the day of reckoning. As turmoil erupts and the Urnahi people are thrust to the forefront of a struggle that threatens the future of the planet, Safiya is burdened with a responsibility that she's not sure she can bear and forced to make decisions that she never expected she'd have to make.