The story begins on the planet Martin, home to the young boy, Ghintec Lynn.

Martin is an isolated planet developed by immigrants from Earth. Man found a way to travel through space after the discovery of the extraordinary particles, Uanons, which can produce a seemingly unlimited amount of energy. Soon technology was developed to use them as the energy source for interstellar spaceships. The ancestors of the people of Martin came from Earth on such a ship.

One day the immigration ship, left on the orbit as a monument, suddenly explodes, leaving a spherical area emitting a dim light in the dark sky [Uanon is the closed state of a gate between the normal universe and planar universe. The explosion was the transition to the open state] and a small ship appears from it. The ship does not respond to queries from Martin and goes back into the luminescent sphere after orbiting Martin for a few times. Before the government of Martin can decide what it was, a large fleet of battleships comes out of the sphere. This time they open communications immediately but only to demand an unconditional surrender.

The commander of the fleet introduces himself as the Crown Prince to "The Empire of Mankind by Abh". He wants Martin to become a part of the Empire. If they surrender, a lord will be assigned to Martin to rule. However, apart from a ban on building/possesing interstellar ships, their lives won't change too much, partly because the lord will not be allowed to tax the people on the planet. The lord will earn his living through the interstellar trading, allowed only to him.

The Crown Prince has no intention of negotiating; for him, Martin must either accept this peacefully or be forced to accept it after the one-sided battle. He will wait for their answer for three days.

The Congress of Martin, somewhat typically of a "democratic" organisation, is incapable of making a decision in such a short time and invests the Prime Minister of Martin, Rock Lynn, with full authority. He decides to surrender but wants Martin's new lord to be selected from the people. The Crown Prince agrees with him in exchange for disablement of the planetary defense system. Apparently Rock at first wanted to select the lord through an election but the Crown Prince was not willing to waste any more time. In the end, Rock settles the issue by becoming the lord himself.

The news angers the people of Martin. Surrender might have been expected but Rock becoming their ruler is not acceptable. They believe he has "sold" their planet to secure his own future [we don't know if this is the case; the details of the talk between Rock and the Crown Prince are never expanded upon in the book].

Rock knew that the decision would anger the people and endanger both himself and his family. Thus he asks his secretary, Till Corint, to take his son, Ghintec, to a safe place. Till does his job properly but cannot help making sarcastic comments to the eight-year-old boy [in Martin calendar, he is ten years old by our calendar], who can only cry to see his familiar world collapsing.

Seven years later Ghintec, now an Abh noble, is at a space port and about to leave the planet Derctu, where he has spent the intervening seven years in a school to learn about the Abh's culture and language. He is going to the Capital of the Empire to enter another school which trains administrators for the Labrec (Abh's Space Navy) because he must serve in the Labrec for at least 10 years, in addition to the three years in the Labrec school, to succeed his father as an Earl.

A young woman soldier from a Labrec battleship comes to pick him up at the spaceport. She is not a full soldier but a Flyer Trainee and the first Abh he has ever seen [they rarely come down to the surface of planets and all the teachers in his school were grounders who used to work for the Abh]. The girl does not introduces herself but only tells him to follow her. This attitude angers Ghintec, who suspects she thinks little of him because he is not a real Abh [the name "Abh" has two meanings; the name of the ruling class and the name of the biological species]. He wants to know her name. Somehow the question stuns her but she proudly declares, "Call me Lamhirh!" Fortunately for both of them, this incident brings them fairly close.

To his surprise Lamhirh operates the small spaceship herself. But this is nothing special for an Abh, who lives only in space. They have an extra sensory system with which they can sense their three-dimensional environment. They operate space ships like we walk (that is, they don't have to conciously think of how to operate a ship).

Conversation with her makes Ghintec realise how little he really knows about the Abh, one of which he has become. For example, how are they born? There is no marriage in their society and both men and women have their children as a single parent. Lamhirh tells that the most common case is that one parent receiving the genes from someone he/she loves and combines them with his/her own. Such a child is called "a son/daughter of love". When she was small, she desperately wanted to be told that she was such a daughter of love. But her father got the odd idea that a secret at birth would be beneficial for a child's mental development and never revealed who the other gene donor was. One day he even brought in Diaho, the house cat, and introduced her as Lamhirh's gene donor. Poor Lamhirh cried through the night before she realised it couldn't be true. Anyway she apparently now knows who her other half came from.

Lamhirh takes Ghintec in her small spaceship to the battleship Gothlauth. He is welcomed with a ceremony, suitable for the son of an Earl, by the top officers of the battleship. Ghintec, who is still not sure if he is really a noble, feels rather uneasy. His heart is gradually softened by the polite and, more importantly, honest attitude of the captain, Hecto-Commander Laicch. By the time the ship enters the planar universe to go to their first destination, Sfagnaumh, Ghintec feels comfortable enough to have a personal chat with her. Then he learns from Laicch that Lamhirh is not a mere flyer trainee but a granddaughter of the Empress.

Laicch orders Lamhirh to take Ghintec to his cabin. On their way Ghintec tries to recover the mistake he made earlier; he was too casual. He speaks to Lamhirh very politely, "Phia Rüéner" [kind of, "My Lady"]. This, however, infuriates her immensely. Although she never reveals the real reason, it is more than obvious that she, a member of the Imperial Family, wanted to be "friends" with him and for them to call each other by their given name without their title. So he switches back to the casual speech and eventually manages to salvage their friendly relationship.

Five days later, the Gothlauth encounters an unidentified fleet in the planar universe. Laicch thinks it is from the Four Nation Union, a military union of four interstellar nations formed to stand against the Empire. She thinks the United Mankind, the main force of the Union, searched for and found a gate close to the center of the Empire in the planar universe. They then moved it so it was near to one of their bases [a closed gate can be transported in the ordinary universe]. Now that they have prepared, they are trying to make a surprise attack on the Empire. If her inference is right, they won't let the Gothlauth go.

Unfortunately she was right. Ten destroyers are approaching the battleship. Seeing her ship is at a disadvantage, Laicch decides to let Ghintec, the only non-military personnel on the ship, escape to Sfagnaumh in a small communication boat and orders Lamhirh to operate the boat. But this infuriates the Flyer Trainee, "How can I, an Abrïacec, escape from a battlefield!?" Laicch isn't moved. Lamhirh is a mere trainee and has no position in the battleship. In addition the special order to take the son of an Earl to his destination and inform the Space Navy about the attack has been given. Lamhirh finally obeys her order and leaves the bridge to get the boat ready. Now that she has gone, Ghintec asks Laicch if it is the Princess who she wants to let escape and, if so, there must be someone more suitable as a guard than him. Laicch is indignant to hear this; it is a captain's duty to secure the safety of non-military personnel. Yet she admits she is glad that the trainee happened to be a princess. If she survives, how can you tell, she might be an excellent Empress in the future.

Soon after the boat leaves the Gothlauth, the enemy's ships reach the battleship and make their space-time bubbles merge. In the merged bubble, the Gothlauth fights well, destroying nine of them arrayed against her, but eventually loses the battle and explodes.

Even though they don't know the fate of the Gothlauth, the two crew of the communication boat are rather depressed. But Ghintec, who is the less depressed of the two, tries to cheer Lamhirh up with some success. She reveals that Laicch is her gene donor. Ghintec is surprised as their attitude to each other was always formal, as far as he saw. But he remembers the only moment Laicch behaved like a gene donor; her last gentle word to Lamhirh at the bridge, "Now go, my dear Lady."

The communication boat stops off at the territory of the Baron of Feubdash for more fuel. The territory does not have a habitable planet and the Baron lives in his mansion in orbit.

Ghintec and Lamhirh are welcomed by his vassals. Precisely speaking, they welcome the Princess almost too well and pretty much ignore Ghintec. In fact Lamhirh gets annoyed and appalled with their servile attitude.

Lamhirh wants to leave for Sfagnaumh as soon as possible but the Baron tells her the fuel won't ready for another 12 hours and their communication ship needs some repair work. He will give her a welcome befitting of a princess while she is waiting. Lamhirh suspects he is lying but cannot think of any reason for it. She and Ghintec decide to take a rest and she is taken to an enormous bath, where she sees more of extremely servile attitude of the Baron's servants.

Lamhirh's suspicion becomes conviction at the dinner table to which the Baron did not invite Ghintec. She wants to know where Ghintec is but the Baron insists he is being welcomed by his father, who lives in a detached area. Lamhirh becomes really sarcastic and aggressive but even this fails to perturb the Baron. He does, however, admit he was lying about the fuel and the communication ship. He wants to keep the princess within his territory for its safety. If the enemy's fleet sees the boat coming out of the gate here into the planar universe, they may attack his territory. The Baron also reveals his disdain towards the male grounders, including Ghintec. Lamhirh gives up hope of persuading him to let them go. She asks a final question to him, "Do you have any male servants here?" His negative reply brings a smile to her face; a smile so infamous that everyone in the universe know it as "Abh's smile". "That is another reason to hate you, isn't it?"

Ghintec was injected with some drug and became unconscious soon after Lamhirh left for the bathroom. He recovers consciousness on a bed and finds an old grounder near him. The man is the former Baron of Feubdash, the father of the current Baron. He tells Ghintec that the lack of history in their family is the cause of the Baron's inferior complex. That's why the Baron confines his grounder father where he can never be seen by anyone. Ghintec wants to escape from the room to see Lamhirh right away but the old man suggests he take a rest before he faces the difficult task.

That night Lamhirh wakes up after four hours of sleep and decides to make a move. With the limited information she can get from the house computer, she finds out Ghintec is confined in the area where the former Baron is confined. She manages to persuade Sérnaïc, a servant who has been waiting outside of her bedroom, to help her duty rather than blindly obeying her master.

Ghintec explains the situation to the former Baron. Together they consider how to escape their confinement but it is not easy. In the meantime, the current Baron is satisfied with the situation. If the Four Nation Union attacks his territory, the princess will be a useful card to play. If neither the Union or the Empire comes back, he could add the princess, a true Abh woman, to his collection of women. But he makes one big mistake. He thinks the loyalty of his servants to him is because of his personality. He will soon realise this isn't the case. Many of his servants followed him because he is an Abh. Now that Lamhirh, a true born Abh of Abh, is here, his authority diminishes.

Lamhirh and Sérnaïc goes to the communication boat to get to the firearms kept on board. Lamhirh wants to take control of the servants' office from which she can contact Ghintec. Sérnaïc realises that she is betraying her master and asks to be made a servant of Lamhirh after this is over. Lamhirh tells her she has no servants but promises she will ask her father about Sérnaïc's future. They opens the door of the office. Now a small episode in her life, yet a historic event for the Baron's family, is about to happen.

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