In a not-so-far-in-the-future world of sprawling, flood-prone city-states and industrially-prepared foodstuff, Rennard, a jaded Adjunct Investigator and reluctant Mine Wars hero, gets summarily yanked upstairs because of a unique talent. It seems he can infallibly spot Origines, sub-human replants, and dispatch them with a dispassionate ferocity that stems from deep contempt. When he is paired off with Prime Investigator Clair, a petite, intelligent female partner who outstrips him in more than rank, and is introduced through her to a wider world of gourmet dining and forgotten forms of music, he finds himself bumbling along distractedly in an investigation that seems to lead straight back to his superior and the two most powerful brothers on the continent. Someone has been altering official records to hide the replantation of the general population, and every time Rennard and Clair get too close to finding answers, their suspects die abruptly. The investigation leads them winding around the towering blocks of the Eastern Federation, flying to the diked lowlands of the Southern Peninsula, and blasting off-Earth to a posh faux-tropical resort on the Moon, but in the end, Rennard discovers that the one person he would never suspect is guilty of every crime.