This story portrays the struggles and experiences of Sean Daniels, a mild-mannered hardware store owner, as he encounters hostile aliens who have taken him captive in an attempt to ascertain the means of defeating the humanas overwhelming desire for freedom and their unyielding psyche. They must learn how to break the human mind in order to turn the humans into slaves for the purpose of making the planet habitable for their kind. While the main character as well as many others turned to violence as their first reaction to a negative situation, in the end, peace is their ultimate goal, and they will eventually learn, in later books in the series, that there are alternative methods whereby one might achieve triumph over evil and peace amid strife.