Ardjia is a rare jewel of a planet. Isolated. Undiscovered by the Intergalactic Identic until now. The planet's abundant resources pale beside the raw talent of its people. When his flight goes awry, Rohjer Doss' diplomatic mission, which he has trained all his life for, becomes a first contact for which he is woefully under qualified. Still his duty is clear. First he must learn to speak to the Ardjianis then he must learn to live as and ultimately think like them. He must find out for the Identic he represents whether or not they qualify for membership and all its benefits, but first and foremost, he must determine if they have any human qualities at all or only those of humanoid monsters. Aamankhotep is a young accomplished governor appointed under the theocratic rule of his grandmother. His thoughts of prosperity and expansion are knocked right out of the sky by Rohjer's crashing ship. He wants to find out everything Rohjer can teach him of the wider universe, but he's got to keep him alive when his very existence threatens the basis of Ardjian social stability as well as the machinations of Aamankhotep's ambitious father. They find common ground in the mental landscape of the otherwhere, that metaphysical realm of subtle perception, that is as real and tangible as the physical world As he learns more and more about the Ardjian language, history, and culture Rohjer must question his own humanity along with that of the Identic he represents for while one has seventeen words for war the other has nineteen words for peacekeeping, and soon he can't convince himself that the Identic has advanced at all in its millennia of cultural history.