Once a colony ship has left Earth, it cannot be recalled and it cannot be contacted. The fate of these vessels and their cargos – designed to be the seeds of new human worlds – remained a tantalizing mystery to those who stayed home. The mission of the scientific recontact ship "Daedalus" was to go out there and find out what happened. And, if necessary, help out the colonists should their developing worlds have taken warped paths.

THE FLORIANS is the story of the first flight of the "Daedalus" and its crew of seven. On the world of the Florians, they did indeed find a planet in trouble – except that the inhabitants refused to admit it.