In the early 37th century, the Harrington family moves from the planet Meyerdahl to the newly founded Star Kingdom of Manticore.

Their eleven-year-old daughter, Stephanie, is unhappy with this change as their new home, the planet Sphinx, seems to have little to offer, especially with seasons lasting much longer than the Earth's.

Stephanie goes hang gliding several days later, unknown to her parents, as her way of scouting out the vast forest where she suspects Climbs Quickly lives.

Two years later the bond between Climbs Quickly, named Lionheart by humans, and Stephanie has increased so they can understand their emotion and general meanings, despite a lack of clear language.

He and his accomplices are imprisoned as punishment for poaching, and the book closes with Stephanie being accepted as a probationary ranger to guard the treecat population.

The short story "A Beautiful Friendship" was originally published in 1998, after Stephanie Harrington and her treecat Lionheart had already been mentioned in passing in the main series of novels.

The novel is split into two parts, the first of which, Unexpected Meetings, encompasses chapters 1 to 12 and is largely identical to the short story, adding only details like a number of dates.

[2] Liz Bourke, writing for Tor.com, felt the story disjointed and a pair of novellas and, compared to other examples of the genre, lacking a compelling adolescent voice.