The 12,000-world Republic of Man sends successful author and notorious thrillseeker Xavier William Lennox to an alien planet on an undercover mission. Disguised as one of the xenophobic natives, Lennox attempts to persuade their leader to grant mining rights to the valuable minerals that lay buried in their vast deserts. When Lennox is rescued ... tortured and barely alive ... the Republic offers him another chance at the job, but with a new body surgically altered to exactly match the hideous natives.