One man must stop starship hijackers from using an unusual starship to plunder a wealthy colony.

Aboard the Redshift, light moves so slowly you can see its passage, and relativistic tricks are an integral part of shipboard life. Flip a light switch and see the room slowly fill with light. Run fast, and the view ahead shifts into blue, and you can create sonic booms.

One component of the book is this slow-light thought experiment, a la Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott or Mr. Tomkins in Wonderland by George Gamow. (Appendix separates actual Theory of Relativity principles from speculation and fabrication.)