Swet in the 'Man-Kzin/Known Space' universe created by Larry Nive, this novel takes us to one of the more desperate times during the series of invasion fleets that the Kzin launched against an increasingly desperate Earth.

The giant warship Sun-Tzu had been launched against Occupied Wunderland where the thirty crew and passengers planned to use a form of bio warfare against the Kzin overlords. But no battle plan escapes the eye of Murphy and a small band of retreating Kzin ships spot the Sun-Tzu on its long journey and decide their lost honour can be regained by attacking this monster out of Sol.

But even Kzin are relative newcomers to the space lanes and the mysterious Outsiders have a strange inheritance and human and kzin kind have intruded into sacred space that would have fatal consequences for the two species ( )