Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the Prime Minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and to marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris's blood-and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the marines.

She has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove in the long-running struggle between her powerful family, a highly defensive-and offensive-Earth, and the hundreds of warring colonies. And then an ill-conceived attack brings the war close to home, putting Kris's life on the line. Now she has only one choice: certain death on the front lines of rim space-or mutiny...