In the bestselling tradition of Margaret Atwood, Ursula K Le Guin, and Sheri S Tepper comes a compelling novel of power and gender on a planet ruled exclusively by women.

Botanist Nathan Crewe planned a smash-and-grab mission to steal samples of a rare plant found only in the remote wilderness of Vanar, ignoring the planets ban on foreigners. Instead, he was betrayed by a jealous lover and left marooned, impoverished, and friendless in a strict matriarchal world he could barely understand. After a member of an influential family takes an interest in him, he slowly adapts to their culture, but discovers an ancient malice buried deep in the history of the planet and its people, threatening him and everyone he has come to care for. And he discovers his arrival on Vanar was anything but accidental...