Sharrow was a soldier in a brief war, and her team were bonded together using SynchroNeuroBonding. A short-cut to the familiarity that comes with working together for years, these teams know each other's actions and reaction in battle. After the war, they worked as a team hunting down relics for money. Now Sharrow must gather the rest of her team before the Huhsz find her.
The story progresses through present time with interruptions from memories. Sharrow's childhood and her years as a soldier are revealed slowly, and the rest of her team come to life with all of their shared history. Zefla, the voluptuous and beautiful blond with the brain of a lawyer, and her quiet brother Dloan. Cenuij, who has always disagreed with Sharrow, and finally fell in love with Breyguhn.
Perhaps the most influencial is Miz, Sharrow's former lover and the father of the child she lost when injured in combat. The Miz shown in present time is fun and facetious, but Sharrow's feeling for him are revealed in her fond memories of their time together.
After reassembling the team, they complete a heist that Miz has been planning, hoping to get away with the Crownstar Adeendum, but Sharrow is ambushed. A pair of bald twins torture her by poking and beating at a doll, and she somehow feels their actions on her own body. They take the jewellery and leave her. They show up a number of times through the course of the novel, and Sharrow has no idea who they are or who they work for, but they want the Lazy Gun too.
Together the remaining members of the team try to hunt down the Lazy Gun to return it to the Huhsz. They have hints, Breyguhn believes that the key to the location is hidden in an antique book, the Universal Principles. But the book has been lost for thousands of years, and there doesn't seem to be a way for the location of the Lazy Gun to be encoded in it.
Breyguhn herself is trapped inside a monastery, imprisoned there since caught trying to access their stores of knowledge. She will be freed when the Universal Principles is given to the monastery. She has become insane, but her long hatred of her sister is still strong. When Cenuij is killed, Breyguhn predictably blames Sharrow and refuses to leave the monastery even when she is set free.
Sharrow traces the clues to the tomb of her grandfather Gorko. It has been repossessed by the World Court and is waiting to be auctioned, in the Android city of Vembyr. The tomb has an inscription which is identical to the one in the back of the Universal Principles.
While looking over an antique bike that had been a part of the tomb, they recognise the shape. The barrel is shaped like a Lazy Gun. The two instrument dials seem to show a location. They follow the dials into the embargoed lands near the city, accompanied by the android Feril, who seems to feel they are living an adventure.
Even though they do find the Lazy Gun, the trip is ultimately a disaster, and Sharrow is left alone to face her mysterious tormentors.
Over the course of the book everything is stripped away from Sharrow, her friends, her safety, and her confidence in herself. When the truth about who is behind her problems is revealed, she is no longer even surprised.