Seeded with human genetic stock over a thousand years ago by an army of intelligent machines, the colony world of Copernica has been all but forgotten by history, a backwater in an ever-increasing frontier of human conquest and development. Yet, guided by the machines from Earth, the colony has been a success. From quiet, uneventful beginnings, it has become a stable human outpost, a world not dissimilar to Earth itself, with a burgeoning population and culture of its own. But Rehan Mihajlovic, a dealer in antiquarian goods, is about to find out that history is only as reliable as those who write it, and that death, when it comes, is never very far away …