In 2285, Harry Landsfeld's student project involved studying the magnetosphere of Uranus. What he saw were thirty-four alien battleships with performance that outstrips anything Earth has land on Miranda, the innermost significant moon of Uranus. War is inevitable, but equally inevitably, Terran society began to fall apart. Even if they could win the war, how could the peace be won? Gaius Claudius Scaevola returns to Earth, to attempt to fulfill the prophecy wherein he would save humanity, but this is a problem he has caused. He must also meet his prophesied "only woman remaining in his life", who was also the ugliest woman in the world. A hard science fiction epic with 18 major characters, four alien races, several romances, not all of which end well, treachery, and is set variously in 3 continents, the Earth-Moon L-4 space station, Mars, Iapetus, the asteroid belt and Miranda. The fourth in the series, but originally written as a stand-alone book.