Young Helen Kley of El Colony, a world dominated by women, doesn't know what to make of the two young men who suddenly come bursting into her life, rescuing her from a humiliating kidnap attempt. That they are offworlders, she has no doubt, that they are corporate agents of some sort, she suspects. Otherwise why do they withhold their names, giving her only the number of a safe line to contact them? In the end, she becomes friends with the one she dubs "Pro" (the other she call "Con" because of their differing attitudes) and simply learns to think of them as her guardians.Only when she comes of age, two years later, and is by custom given her father's name and an invitation to visit heretofore unknown relatives on his homeworld, does she learn the truth about her adopted guardians. In fact she learns truth after truth as she and Pro, whose real name she finally learns, must battle their way through one adventure after another as they seek her missing father while avoiding his enemies.In the end, she faces not only threats from the outside, but also the need to come to terms with her own values and background -- to choose and to choose rightly. Everything she has learned to care about depends on her choice -- her own happiness and the welfare of those who have become dear to her.