The authorities are shocked, unable to comprehend why anyone would want to harm one priestess, much less six. As a result, they call upon the interstellar government known as Interfed for help.
The Moonchildren, an elite Interfed peacekeeping force, sends Special Assignment Officer Cowen Drake to investigate the murders.
Drake, a career soldier, soon learns his mission is as difficult as it is political. Although he doesn't even speak the planet's language, he must still work closely with the local authorities in his investigation.
A tale of two priestesses
Drake receives help from each of the two religious orders. Jovieve, the high priestess of the Triumphantes, speaks Standard Terran and explains to Drake that her sect celebrates Ava through joy, showing the generosity and love of the goddess by way of their extravagance.
It is a way of life unfamiliar to Drake, who grew up on a harsher world. By contrast, the Fidele way seems closer to his own memories of faith. Their worship is ascetic -- their priestesses have renounced wealth and pleasure in their desire to serve Ava's people, and regularly go into the slums to serve the poor and give aid to the hungry and the sick.
The priestess Laura is Drake's Fidele guide, and he accompanies her into the streets of Semay's main city, Madrid. A pious woman, Laura lives her faith in the small gestures of each day -- a fact not lost on Drake.
Moonchild in a strange land
Drake's outsider status helps ease our entrance into the culture of Semay. Jovieve and Laura teach him about their respective faiths, letting us learn about the world along with the hero.
All of this information is central to the mystery at the heart of the novel: who is killing the priestesses, and why? Drake's investigation drives the story -- as is typical for the mystery form, we can become absorbed in the story by trailing along behind him and seeing him explore and exhaust possibilities.
But even as Drake searches for the killer, we realize that he is searching for his own faith.
Three roads diverged in a desert
As the book winds onward, Drake finds himself drawn to the joyful spirit of the Triumphante high priestess and inspired by Laura's piety.
He also allows himself to spend time off with Lise, a colleague stationed on Semay. With Lise, Drake shares impulsive fun with a fellow soldier, each able to separate the joy of the moment from the uncertainty of the future.
In the end, Drake must decide among the three, or more accurately, come to an understanding of how he connects to each of them, finding his heart in the process.
What Shinn shows us here is how one man comes to belief and learns to feel again. Drake even finds that he can love, a moment as miraculous as any of the religious mysteries of Semay.
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