When Matt Hendrick's daughter Sam is kidnapped by his ex-wife Maatje and the malign Dr Hovarth, Hendrick embarks on a quest to track her down and return her to Earth. His journey from planet to exotic planet takes him to . . .

Fomalhaut IV . . . What he finds on the easy going backwater world is a bizarre religion and a race of aliens whose rituals promise to bring to dead back to life...

Spica III . . . where Hendrick stumbles across a cult whose charismatic leader demands nothing less form his adherents as the ultimate sacrifice: suicide...

Alpha Reticuli II . . . On this world Hendrick meets an alien Effectuator who claims that he can bring Matt's dead daughter, Sam, back to life... but is the alien all he claims to be?

And finally to Bellatrix I . . . Maatje and Dr Hovarth have fled to the planet of Beltran, home of the advanced but reclusive alien race known as the Vhey. But on this sultry jungle world, at the end of his quest, a moving and horrific denouement awaits Matt Hendrick . . .