Shakbout Mansard is a bottle born free citizen of Theigler, one of the tiny minority of artificial lifeforms to be a free citizen. He has stumbled upon information about a plot to overthrow the Standing Committee that rules Theigler, information that is fatal to know. He has been forced to go undercover at election campaign for a bottle born political party and find himself being forced by a notorious terrorist to steal the most important artifact in the inhabited systems. This act would start a system wide conflict between the natural and the bottle born lifeforms.

The biggest problem he has is the secret he has been running from for ten years, time is running out on keeping the secret. The secret, if revealed, would lead to the death of everyone in the inhabited systems. With no time left or place to run to Shakbout finally must make a choice, his life or the lives of every lifeform in the inhabited systems.