Steven Zheng is an ice miner on the desolate moon of Ganymede, where he ekes out just enough of a living to get by in the colony’s underground warrens. He gets the break of a lifetime when a UN job placement program selects him for relocation to Valbara – a lush paradise planet where he can breathe fresh air, drink clean water, and walk outside without a pressure suit. When he arrives, he quickly realizes that the alien culture will take some getting used to. The locals are diminutive reptilian creatures with strange social behaviors, and with females outnumbering males by a factor of seven to one, he finds himself the unwitting focus of attention in the workplace. Valbaran office politics may be just as difficult to navigate as the subsurface tunnels back home.