He had spent a hundred years seeking the woman called Silver; he still didn't know if he was going to kill her. On Nuala — planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest metal in the known galaxy — is a meeting of two con artists ripe for mischief...and maybe murder. Two misplaced quests explode into a conspiracy of death, treason, and abduction.

Poised between empires, the people of Nuala are survivors. They have fought the deadly radiation levels of their world, battling frightening mutations and genetic shift. An Axis Empire soldier is about to marry a Nualan princess. But there are those who would kill to keep an Axis warrior from marrying a Nualan . . . and those who think it's the perfect smoke screen to keep anyone from noticing where the border is about to shift. Nuala means survival. Survival against all odds, all enemies, all fortune. They're going to have to prove it.

On the planet Nuala, the scam that beguiling free-trader Silver has come to join has just been blown to the skies, along with the throne lines of three separate sovereign nations.The last male heir of one throne line, Sheel Atare, is unprepared to rule, but he's quick to seize allies wherever he can - like the beautiful and dangerous Silver.Now Silver has to choose: stick to the scam, or get sucked into the struggle to save Nuala - and Sheel Atare's life.