Welcome to Spatterjay ... where sudden death is the normal way of life. On the remote planet Spatterjay arrive three travellers: Janer, acting as the eyes of a hornet Hive-mind; Erlin, a xenobiologist searching for an ancient sea captain; and Sable Keech, who himself has been dead for 700 years. On this ocean world, visitors are rare, and the native hoopers – humans infected with a local virus that renders them nearly invincible, though at monstrous cost – patrol the open seas, risking the voracious appetites of the planet's deadly wildlife. Somewhere out there is Spatterjay Hoop, the last member of a band of pirates, whose many years spent on the planet have transformed him into a grotesque monster. And a vicious alien prador is about to pay Spatterjay a visit as well, intent on extermination. As the visitors' paths converge, major hell is about to erupt in a chaotic waterscape where minor hell is already a remorseless fact of everyday life ... and death.