This work of military SF is the second Honorverse novel, set in the same milieu as the popular Honor Harrington novels but in which the officer herself plays only a minor role. A group of midshipmen, recently graduated from the Royal Manticoran Naval academy, are being shipped off to the Talbott Cluster, a small group of planets remote from the front lines of the battle being fought between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven. What looks like a routine mission--facilitating the Clusters apparently willing assimilation into the Star Kingdom--turns out be complex and dangerous indeed, as the new graduates face a number of foes who strongly oppose becoming Manticoran.