Near Future. Humanity is gradually developing, mastering the solar system and exploring the nearest planets, until it meets the Merchant - a representative of an extraterrestrial civilization. The merchant offers people a deal - the development of the Other Party and the extraction of its resources in exchange for technology and knowledge. So people discover a new world - a whole universe that gives unusual opportunities, and begin to colonize it. Alex, a novice prospector, goes to the Other Side, but during the transition he finds himself in an unknown and extremely dangerous area for people, from where you can get out only by the corpses of enemies. Fourteenth book of the cycle. The problems in Vaantana do not end, but in order to solve them, Alex must leave his native Cluster.