The starship Wormstorm is attacked by the Nale'nid as it approaches a friendly colony on Ernathe. For years the Nale'nid, the strange sea-people of Ernathe, have kept themselves apart from the small human colony. Why have they suddenly started to interfere? Starpilot Seth Perland is abducted and, under the influence of the enchanting Lo'ela, he experiences the unbelievably beautiful, but devastatingly cruel world of the Nale'nid. His life is changed - beneath the stormy Seas of Ernathe.