Rod Garvin, governor of North America and Mars, was supposed to be on vacation, spending some time in France with his Number One Wife, Flora, and Felix, the son he had never met. But where Garvin went, trouble followed. Alerted by a spy in Flora's household, his enemies awaited his arrival. And the war leaders of North America had an assignment for find Lani, Imperatrix of North America, and convince her to come out of hiding.