Counselor Andrea Cort answers a cryptic summons to the home world of the powerful Bettelhines, but a murder attempt greets her arrival at Xana's orbital entry port, and far graver peril awaits aboard the elevator transport meant to carry Andrea to the planet's surface. Trapped miles above Xana with a corpse liquefied by a 15000-year-old weapon, Andrea must unmask an assassin or die an equally hideous death.