While the Monral plots to seize control and open Tolar to human trade - with the major advantages going to him, Laura Howard is adjusting to life on an alien planet. She has found love with the Paran and rediscovered her abilities as an artist, but she misses her family back in human space.

Then she has an accident and loses her memories of all the time she's spent on Tolar and forgotten her bond with the Paran. While dealing with her memory loss, she revisits all her insecurities including that her father convinced her that she wasn't smart enough to suit him. She becomes convinced that no one could love her as she was. That everyone wanted her to be someone else before she could be worthy of love.

She is also dealing with a very strong empathy that almost overwhelms her senses. However, she is getting an assist in dealing with her problems from the Jorann, who is the ancient mother of all the Tolari.

Her struggles are happening at the same time that the Monral is using more and more dirty tricks in his quest to gain control of the planet. One of his plots has taken him so far beyond what is acceptable that his bond mate Sharana has left him and has even traveled to the Jorann to ask that the bonding be removed.

This story moved the emphasis from the romances to the political arena and deals with a culture very reluctantly opening itself up to a galaxy that it had previously abandoned. ( )