The typical protagonist in these books was a boy in his late teens who was proficient in the art of electronics, a hobby that was easily available to the readers.

In this book, though, the protagonist is a junior officer, about twenty years old, in the Star Watch, the interstellar navy of the Terran Confederation.

Geoffrey (Jeff) Knowland, a junior officer of Star Watch must lead a fighting evacuation of the planet Northolm.

Shocked, the Council agrees to the Knowland Plan and also to an attack by a Terran Expeditionary Force into enemy space to knock the Saurians off balance.

In the wreckage of an enemy ship the humans find an intact set of star charts and use them to locate the Masters’ home worlds.