Loul Pell is a middle-class, midlevel government functionary, stranded in a dead-end job and resigned to the loss of his ambitious dreams. Meg Dupris is a traveler from a distant galaxy, haunted by tragedy and committed to a lifelong journey of discovery. Literally worlds apart, they are two unexpectedly kindred spirits, whose chance meeting will be the first step toward life-changing history: contact with an extraterrestrial race.Dispatched from Earth after being thrown into chaos by the prospect of human life nurtured on distant planets by an ancient alien race, Meg and her fellow explorers aboard the spaceship Damocles have found - in the far-flung planet Didet and the strange civilization that has developed under its seven suns - the proof that will forever alter humankind's role in the cosmos. But the efforts of both Earthers and the Dideto to forge a peaceful, productive bond may be doomed by two very human traits: mistrust and superstition.