While on a routine census sweep of a star system, space-station anthropologist Cassandra Uland crash lands on a planet that has suffered an unknown ecological disaster, rendering it mostly desert. She is befriended by Nex, a native man whom the rest of the population shuns as a cannibal. After Nex saves Cassandra's life in defiance of the Council, she discovers in his possession a mysterious golden box called the Idecis, revered for its mystical powers. Everyone wants it, but no one, including Nex, knows how to use it. When Cassandra stumbles onto the key of the Idecis, she finds that it unlocks not only the purpose of this strange box but the origin of the world's disaster and the present evil that lies waiting in a desert cavern. In the midst of the ensuing struggle, a rescue ship arrives for Cassandra. The question that looms for her is: will the cannibal let her go?