No longer a brash, young ensign, Captain Dominic Flandry has risen in rank,but now appreciates fully that the Terran empire is old and tired, wanting to beleft in peace. But the enemies it has made and the competing empire of Merseiawill give it no peace. Too evenly matched for open warfare not to destroy themboth, the opponents engage in subtle thrust and counter-thrust, feint andcounter-feint, with Flandry in the thick of it.Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will strugglegloriously and snatch victory from the alien jaws of defeat, Flandry is yet atragic figure: a man who knows too much history, who knows that battle, scheme,and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with therelentlessness of physical law the Empire is falling and the Long Night isapproaching. If that darkness is not to fall in his own lifetime, if the thingshe cares about are to be saved, he must do what he can. And anyone, human oralien, who gets in his way will most definitely regret it!