The "Girl with the Turtle Tattoo" is shanghaied by arrogant, intelligent Snakes onto the first starship to voyage beyond our solar system. Traveling at near-lightspeed she will live long enough to see new worlds. Left behind on Earth, however, Sally's lover will be long dead. Her dismal situation gets even worse when she and her friendly Dinosapien crew are tossed thirty billion light-years distant from the Milky Way. Stranded in intergalactic space, pursued by a relentless alien warship, Sally is tempted to follow the example of an evil Socrates: drink a cup of poison and die. But in the darkest void, she discovers that True Love can span millennia, galaxies, and even death itself.