It is a thousand years from now.

The tenuous galactic empire humanity has cast across the skies depends for its very existence on hyperspace and the pilots who can ride its bizarre force-fields. And these pilots are gypsies. The Romany have come into their own. But there is a price: the legendary Romany Star. All the leverage the gypsies can bring to bear is used in the search for their ancestral home. Intergalactic blackmail? Of course. But also a statement of intent, romantic but implacable.

Who better to orchestrate a scam so colossal than Yakoub, once and future King of Gypsies? Sulking in luxurious exile, he has been planning his return to power and reminiscing over his extraordinary life. But when the moment of truth arrives, nothing seems to go according to (Yakoub's) plan. All his ingenuity, every sacrifice (even his pride) may not be enough . . .