Elam Vandreren arrives on Cabot's Landing expecting to become the planet's Resident and caretaker. Instead he finds himself investigating a grisly crime and uncovering even more disturbing secrets.When Elam finds the prior Resident murdered, he thinks the Resident's spouse did it. Sigurd van Dorstadt, the investigator from the transport ship Zuiderkruis , thinks Elam did it. They both think no one else is on the planet.It turns out they're both wrong - about everything.Although Elam and Sigurd don't like each other, they join forces with a team from Zuiderkruis to find the truth. The evidence soon points to unknown criminals hiding out in the ruins of an ancient military base - and they're not the planet's only other inhabitants.When part of their team is taken hostage, Elam and Sigurd barely escape with their lives. To survive and rescue their friends, they must rely on each other and make an alliance with a secretive group called the Left Behind. But the more of Cabot's Landing's secrets they uncover and the more their feelings for each other grow, the more fraught their decisions become. With duty and honor at odds with their hearts, can Elam and Sigurd strike a balance they can live with?