Supreme Commander Laurie Lachrer finds herself overwhelmed by galling administrative headaches in her first six months as supreme commander. In addition to resistance throughout the United System bureaucracy, she's being sued by Cassie Wolfduy, mother of the corrupt USSF airman Laurie was forced to kill in self-defense the previous May. Laurie is also politically stigmatized as an inept Commerist, subservient to former supreme commander Jack Commer. But all these troubles pale in comparison to her guilty attraction to subordinate Rod Morgan, the brilliant young physician/engineer on spaceship Pegasus I.

Meanwhile, Laurie's protégé Mavis Wheeler captains Pegasus II to a planet 92.5 light-years away to initiate first contact with an alien race called the Counselors, who offer to introduce humanity to what they call the Dream Culture. But the Counselors, who've taken the form of six-foot Beagle-human hybrids to interface with Sol, also turn out to be eager and influential spectators at Laurie's murder trial.