The Neiharts and their superfreighter Finity's End had spent the post-war years assisting the Alliance militia hunt down the renegades.

Unable to adjust to stationer life, she had committed suicide when he was five years old, leaving him to suffer through a succession of foster homes.

Now a young man of seventeen with dreams of working on the planet, he is furious when he is handed over against his will to his relatives as part of a deal between Elene Quen, Stationmaster of Pell, and senior Finity Captain James Robert Neihart.

Due to this and also because it was impractical to raise children in wartime, the youngest generation consists of only three orphaned "junior-juniors": Jeremy (Fletcher's new roommate), Vince and Linda.

It all comes crashing down when Fletcher's spirit stick, a valuable gift from the hisa leader Satin (from Downbelow Station), is stolen.

At every port of call, he forges agreements with merchanters, Union officials and stationmasters to try to bring about a transition to peacetime, legitimate trade, and at the same time shut down the smugglers and the black market from which the Mazianni obtain supplies.

He succeeds, but as the senior captains are locked in vital negotiations, Fletcher is instructed to keep his charges in their hotel room and wait.

Cherryh also wrote a song about the story of the Merchanter series, named "Finity's End", a decade before the novel was published.