In the last book, Captain Alisa Marchenko learned that the mysterious Starseers had kidnapped her daughter and Alisa vowed to get her back. The problem with that vow is nobody actually knows where the Starseers are since they are masters of mind manipulation and keep themselves hidden away. Of course this is a popcorn sci-fi book, so one of Alisa's passengers, Yumi, just happens to be the daughter of a Starseer and she knows of a planet where they have a temple. And another of her passengers, Alejandro, is also interested in paying the Starseers a visit to learn more about his mysterious orb, so off they all go to the planet Arkadius. Contrivances aside, just knowing where the Starseers are is a far cry from Alisa actually being able to get her daughter back, and the Starseers aren't exactly inclined to help Alejandro with his orb quest either, since they feel that the orb belongs to them. All of this means that when the Star Nomad does arrive at the planet Arkadius, and the crew manages to find the Starseers, it should make for an interesting confrontation.

In the first book of the series, Star Nomad, Captain Alisa Marchenko and her crew never even made it to their destination, but they finally do in this book. The Empire may have lost the war, but the planet of Perun is still a stronghold for Empire supporters, so the Star Nomad isn't exactly welcome. Luckily for Marchenko, one of her passengers, Alejandro, is able to use his influence to clear the way for an authorized landing. Alisa is here to be reunited with her daughter, who she hasn't seen in years, and Alejandro is here to do some research on his mysterious artifact to further his unknown quest. Marchenko isn't sure exactly what happens after she is reunited with her daughter, but she is still dreaming of a life as a freighter pilot and plans to take her daughter with her. However, it doesn't take long for her to learn that something dreadful has happened and all her plans are for naught. While she was off fighting in the war, the Starseers came and took her daughter away, so it's time for a new plan. Track down the all powerful Starseers and get her daughter back, no matter what the cost....

The war is over and the Empire has surrendered, but that doesn't mean things are going well for everyone, especially on the mining planet of Duster. Fighter pilot Alisa Marchenko has finally recovered from injuries sustained in a crash during the final battle of the war only to discover that she has been left behind on this mostly lawless planet. She has no money and no way to return home to Perun where her daughter is, so she hatches a plan to fix up the dilapidated freighter that she grew up on, which has been rotting in a local scrapyard for the last 6 years. She enlists the help of Mica, the pessimistic engineer from her old ship, who also wants to get off of Duster and they set out to fix up the Nomad. Of course things don't go according to plan and they wind up with a few other interesting individuals they have to deal with in order to leave, including the enemy cyborg who happens to have taken up residence in the freighter now.