Karl Krabbe and Boris Bouche, partners, explorers and interstellar chancers, see a business opportunity on the desert planet Tenacity. Once water-rich but now dry, Tenacity can be terraformed back into oceans — a project that suits the native Tlixix but threatens numerous intelligent species that evolved after the great dehydration. Roncie Northrop, the partners' bondman nuclear engineer, is crucial to the plan but reluctant. Krabbe and Bouche strike a deal and set the scheme in motion.