This is not what Heinrich Adler signed up for. After many false dawns, humanity had thought itself alone in the universe. So too had the Culvanai, the people of the planet known simply as Mud, with its many small islands and seas ruled by clans, not nations. Now, far from both Earth and Mud, the two races defied the odds by establishing peaceful first contact.

Yet neither humans nor Culvanai are politically united. Heinz and his crew must travel to Mud to head off a war before it can begin, as the atavistic Profondistes use first contact as an excuse for their own ambitions. And the first Culvanai ambassadors to Earth find themselves at the centre of an elaborate plot masterminded by African trillionaire Amos Nkomo. The story of "Well Met By Starlight" continues in "On the Wings of the Morn".