Three thousand planet-bound years have fled while Ender the star-traveller remains young. In that time his name has become anathema, for he is the one who killed an entire race of thinking, feeling beings. No other has been found - until Lusitania is discovered.

With the young race there is a chance for mankind to redeem the previous destruction. The only humans allowed near them are trained xenobiologists. But once again there are tragic misunderstandings. And when Ender, as Andrew Wiggin, is called to Lusitania to speak the terrible deaths of men killed by the aliens, he walks into a maelstrom of fear and hatred.