Follows young Fleet Lieutenant Esmay Suiza after the mutiny and space battle detailed in Winning Colors (1995). Esmay returns to her home planet, where she is a member of an aristocratic family, and learns the hidden secret of her childhood. The fleet then reassigns her to inglorious duty on a massive space base, on which she must come to terms with both her background and her military career while facing ever-present danger from enemy forces ready to strike.