Earth business tycoon Bassett hopes to profit from this trouble, but he is opposed by Counce, an agent of a secret elite attempting to guide history for the benefit of Humanity.

This organisation, backed by Ram and Falconetta of the influential Video India broadcasting network, has sole access to the transfax, a matter transmitter technology that allows instant transportation and duplication of objects and living beings.

The situation is complicated by the arrival of the Others, aliens hoping to colonise some of the worlds in Human Space, who threaten Ymir, a frigid planet sparsely populated by religious fanatics hostile to Earth.

Falconetta's protege Anty suggests that the Others' survey ship be pulled from space and landed by transfax to prevent knowledge of Ymir reaching the Others' home world.

Counce, three hundred years old and in his fifth reincarnation, is feeling tired of a life of struggle, and decides to make a suicide attack on Bassett's ship.