Jordan McKell, a renegade space pilot & his unusual alien partner, Ixil, incautiously agree to fly a ship & its special cargo to Earth. The ship, Icarus, turns out to be a ramshackle hulk with a ragtag crew & a cargo so secret it's sealed in a special container inside the ill-designed ship. As if that weren't bad enough, it looks like the authorities already suspect something is afoot, there's a saboteur aboard & the Icarus appears to be shaking apart at the seems. Things can, & do, get worse when McKell uncovers the true nature of the cargo. Their only chance to survive lies in staying one step ahead of their pursuers as they try to make it home