In this richly realised universe of enigmatic aliens and complex politics, one woman must untangle interlocking mysteries in a race against time. Halley, commander of the deep space station Jocasta, is desperate. Her station is blockaded by hostile creatures, communications and key systems are failing, rations are low, tensions between humans and aliens are at the flashpoint, and a foreign trader is killed by an apparently extinct monster. Halley must now solve the mystery of a locked room in closed space - before Jocasta erupts in an explosion of terror and death.

Picking up where Time Future - the first book in the series - left off, Halley finds herself thrown back in time to 21st-century Australia, where her only hope of returning home is to await first contact with the enigmatic aliens who have discovered time travel. Meanwhile, back in her "home time" a universe of warring alien species finds itself at flashpoint, fighting over control of the time travel technology.