After two pieces of an asteroid hit their planet and knocked it off its axis, the surviving beings of the planet spent centuries rebuilding their society on the edge of disaster. The Leaders made Great Changes and Purges, constructing twenty huge cities, called megalopolises, to house their population, cultivating huge farms, and purging most of the technology so everyone had a job.

The one problem the Leaders can’t control is crime. They have banished first time criminals to the destroyed former cities, now called Fringes, beside the Megalopolises. The murderers and drug and tobacco sellers are being sent to Orbital Prisons. These are set inside former spaceships orbiting above the planet. But those prisons are being overwhelmed and there is now a quest to find another planet that would support their type of species. Jawn has just been sent to the Fringe of Megalopolises One for theft. He is lost, scared, and easily robbed of his few belongings. He finds his brother and is given a quick lesson on the rules of living in the Fringe.

Gwin is an Exploratory Officer who is part of the mission that finds the planet suitable to be used for a penal colony. Both Gwin and Jawn are among the prisoners on the space ships when they land on that planet.