Grant Stone has a damaged ship and an even more damaged crew. After the battle over Threnody, they need time to refit and heal up.

The Ghost Fleet offers few reprieves, however, and in order for Grant to allow his team the rest they have earned, he has to take on a new mission. On one of the original colony planets, clues point toward a small part in a much larger conspiracy masterminded by the genocidal artificial intelligences trying to destroy mankind.