For fourteen years, Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor has struggled to make a life for himself after the woman he loved ruthlessly betrayed him. Court martialed, disgraced, and removed from the military, he scrapes out a living as the captain of a small trading vessel smuggling black market goods beneath the elite noses of the Solar League.

Princess Mercedes de Arango has problems of her own. She has failed to produce an heir to secure the throne and faces the escalating intrigues of the nobility seeking to bring her down. Worse, her unfaithful husband, along with fathering a bevy of illegitimate children, is accused of corrupt business dealings.

Desperate to hold off a coup, Mercedes embarks on a military campaign to earn the allegiance of her people through victory. But triumph is rarely certain, and instead she finds herself once more faced with the man she heartlessly betrayed-and who loathes the very sight of her. And who might be the only one who can save her.

Can Tracy and Mercedes forgive long enough to work together or will the League plunge into civil war?