He reports to Captain Duv Galeni, his Imperial Security superior and a Komarran whose aunt was one of the victims of an infamous massacre of civilians allegedly committed by Miles' father.

As the funds will have to come from the nearest sector headquarters in another star system, Miles resumes his real identity as Lieutenant Vorkosigan and is assigned to the embassy as third assistant military attaché, under Galeni's command.

Instead of docilely answering all questions, he becomes manic; he finds that he can beat the drug by flying off on wild tangents, such as reciting military manuals, poems and plays from memory.

Complicating matters are Cetagandan and Barrayaran assassination squads (targeting Naismith and the clone, respectively), a Dendarii contingent and the local police, all converging on their location.

Jo Walton, writing at Tor.com, praised Bujold's depiction of "the way politics and technology move and change and interact and things go on outside of the stories"; however, she also stated that it was a poor place to begin reading the Vorkosigan series, because much of its emotional power depended on a pre-existing familiarity with the characters and setting, such that although she "liked it enough to finish (reading) it, and to pick up another book by the same author", she "came to (the) book without already caring, and it didn’t make (her) care.

"[2] The SF Site, reviewing the audiobook edition, similarly felt that it didn't "really work as an entry point (into the series)", but lauded the inclusion of "ethical issues about identity and personhood and individual rights", and observed parallels to The Comedy of Errors.