Has Nikki Finn's past caught up with her? Did she have a memory cascade and revert to a former identity? The Kagran's might know, but if they do, they certainly aren't telling anybody. No good deed goes unpunished as the lives of the Starling's hang in the balance and they find themselves trapped in a situation that has everybody that has had anything to do with them divided and confused. The children are kept in the dark about what's happened until Tracy McHugh uncovers the horrible truth. She knows something has to be done to prevent the demise of her fellow Starlings as they are about to be inundated and carried away to oblivion by a flood of mendacious fabrications and deceptions led by the diplomatic establishment of The Tev-Raxian authorities. She quickly realizes that not only is there nothing she can do, but her every move, and in fact every move of all the Starling children are being closely and carefully watched with malevolent eyes, saturated with vicious, criminal intentions.