Nyx, a hard-nosed assassin for a covert bureau of amphictyony security, is dispatched to malache, there to prevent the transfer of classified data by killing the courier. she does so, only to learn that she has killed the wrong person. sent back to correct the error, she becomes embroiled in an internecine corporate squabble over resources in which both sides seek to eliminate the native, lemuroid malasy in droves. her opposition is led by the one person who has defeated her before. the ecology itself is aggressively hostile. her support team includes an outcast malasy who seeks a sexual liaison with her, and a skittish anthropologist of questionable loyalties. devoid of emotions as the result of a brutal childhood and even harsher training, nyx discovers that to accomplish her mission she must reacquaint herself with her lost feelings and her femininity. that in order to win, she must shed the cold-bloodedness that enabled her to succeed in past assignments. but in the final, grisly confrontation with the nemesis from her past, she must make the most cold-blooded sacrifice of all.