Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove - he's been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp - an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future - attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out. On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money & resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of "generation" past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, & a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning "Don't mess with the secretary." Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping - something is rotten on Kibou-daini, & it isn't due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle - of trouble!
