When the solar system adopts the buggy SolGrid telepathic network as a defense against alien intrusion, Jack Commer's impudent son Jonathan James instigates a rebellion against what he considers fascist brainwashing. His tiny army includes his lover Suzette, the wife of Jack's Typhoon VI weapons officer; exobiologist Jackie Vespertine, emissary to aliens in the Iota Persei system; and the telepathic Beagle Trotter, bonded in an ancient Alpha Centaurian ritual to Jonathan James as warrior-brother. Jonathan James even convinces Patrick, the computer hacker who designed SolGrid, that his dysfunctional creation is wrecking Sol culture. Smitten with the voluptuous Suzette, Pat finally accepts a place in the rebellion, but is he's stunned when Jonathan James storms an orbiting museum and not only steals Typhoon II, Jack Commer's obsolete 2030's spaceship, but also kidnaps the Emperor of the Martians.