After spending sixteen years unjustly imprisoned on the planet Terra Saint Edmunds, Wells Gainer is abruptly and mysteriously set free by the prison director and ordered from the premises. Homeless, penniless, and in declining health wanders into Gaolertown where he discovers that everyone is being evacuated under orders from the planet's owner who has sent his niece Olivia Raedwald to oversee the operation. While Wells struggles to rescue the other prisoners left behind, he comes face to face with Olivia -- the only one who lives through the crash of the final shuttle trip to gather evacuees. This is a companion story to the main trilogy of the Chronicles of Terra Saint Edmunds books: The Second Best King, The Wronged Prince, and the Dying Hero.