Ron Barron never expectied to see Clonar again. Clonar, the boy who alone had survived the crash of an interstllar saucer-ship near Ron's home, had been rescued by his people and returned to Rorla, a planet in the Great Galaxy of Andromeda, almost a million light-years from Earth. When he left, he assured Ron that communication between Rorla and Earth would be impossible. Yet only a year later, Ron listened with growing excitement to Clonar's voice coming over the interstellar communication system, inviting Ron and his family to journey to Rorla to attend a conference of the Galactic Federation.

None of the Barrons could have known that Clonar's invitation was violently opposed by the Rorlans, nor that on Rorla was an unknown enemy who resented their coming - a man who saw Earth's destruction as a necessity. And it was a bitter coincidence that that man should be in charge of the colony of delegates. As representatives of a planet whose civilization was considered dangerous and too inferior for membership in the Federation, the Barrons found themselves at the mercy of suspicious and hostile strangers bent on proving Earth's civilization unsalvageable. Not until Ron's father becomes an innocent party to an assassination plot, do they fully realize to what extent the Rorlans will carry their deception.

Climaxed by a shocking courtroom scene in which Ron stands trial for Earth, this sequel to Raymond Jones's SON OF THE STARS is an intricately plotted tale of what could happen if earth were to come face to face with long-established civilizations of Outer Space.