Ariadna is made up of the descendents of the first human colonizing ship that disappeared into a worm-hole and was given up for lost. Isolated on a remote and hostile planet, the Ariadnes – Cossacks, Americans, Scots and Frenchmen – have evolved into a hard and technologically less advanced race, which has just made contact with the Human Sphere and is trying to carve out a niche for itself without falling under the control of the other powers.