Captain Vance and his crew have been in the remote Ostrov system for years looking for the fugitive, Trin Lestor. Now they've come to Declo, a planet with frozen mountain top villages and humid jungle...

Captain Vance, still plagued by the ill-effects of a poison dart from a mission to Declo, now faces a crew torn apart by their desire to return to Federation space and completing their mission of finding...

With Captain Vance's life in mortal danger, Commander Boxer and Doctor Ward take him back to Declo to find a cure for the poison that afflicts him. They find Desche, and she takes them to a Declian shaman...