CIVIL WAR THREATENS THE MOST FOULED-UP PLANET IN THE GALAXY — Murdstone is the most backward planet in the entire Barnum System, and Peluda is the most backward and fouled-up territory on Murdstone. Sensible people avoid Peluda--unless they are fond of disappearing at unpredictable moments. When that happens to a Barnum secret agent, his frantic wife finds that his government will do nothing to get him back, so she turns to the notorious Mirabilis Agency.

And that turns loose free-lance undercover agent Peter Torres on one of the wildest chases of his career, where the bad guys keep helping him out of trouble and the good guys are out to kill him.