Nicholas Van Rijn was a smart old bird. He guessed it was inevitable that he and all that the Merchant Princes stood for would tumble into darkness. Dominic Flandry lived in its shadow; he knew that struggle and plot though he might, the ever hungry darkness would have him and his world at last. But for those who came after, that darkness was no mere tragedy. It was reality. It was the Long Night.

The collection contains the following stories:

• Prologue
• The Star Plunderer
• Outpost of Empire
• A Tragedy of Errors
• The Sharing of Flesh
• Star Fog
• A Chronology of Technic Civilisation