Stranded on a desolate planet where he can’t even grow cabbage, Federation Marshal Mason Ward unexpectedly rescues his old partner Dylan Shaw, who is about to enter heat. Together, starting from a drugged chicken, they uncover a human trafficking and pheromone-control conspiracy spanning high-ranking military and political circles—and in the process of breaking the scheme, turn the admiration they never voiced ten years ago into a love that insists on free choice.