Beneath the surface of the planet, a growing rebellion threatens Sheng-ji Yang's dreams of immortality, as the former executive officer of the Unity finds his carefully controlled world unraveling. Across the ocean, Lady Deirdre Skye's very life is in jeopardy as the Planetary Council withholds vital supplies, demanding that she turn over her research concerning the mysterious life force that is awakening on Chiron.

Though an ocean apart, Yang and Skye seek an alliance to overcome the forces arrayed against them. The stakes are high: power, survival, and the future of human life on Chiron. And in the end, only one of them will survive Yang's Dragon Sun.

Hope turns to ashes when, on final approach to the new world, a mysterious malfunction damages the ship, triggering a crisis that results in the death of the captain and a rash of infighting over the ship's undamaged colony pods. The Unity breaks apart in space and seven colonial factions are scattered across the surface of the planet.

As the Unity surviviors struggle to rebuild human civilization on this strange and mysterious alien world, old tensions resurface and one man sets in motion forces that may destroy any dream of a lasting peace.

Five besieged factions join the battle against Miriam's zealots while Zakharov and Miriam spar in the virtual labyrinth of a sprawling technological network. As the planet Chiron prepares itself for a new era, humanity's struggle hurtles toward a shocking conclusion...