Human beings are organized in protective congregations connected to stars. The main societies are identified solely by the color of the star that gives them life: Gold, Gray, Red, Blue, and White. When a baby is born in one of these congregations, its heart is exposed to gases from the star. If the gases bond with heart, the child will grow and live for as long as the star does. The individual will also be able to use special powers that are unique to that star. Oftentimes the gases do not bond with the heart, in which case the individual either dies from the vapors incinerating the inside of their body, or they live a powerless short life as a Lem. The main congregations have the most forceful abilities, but there are millions of star communities populated by people with seemingly useless powers or potentially dangerous ones. Each congregation varies in their spiritual relationship with their star, personality as a society, goals, political structure, and treatment of Lems.

The congregations have always been fighting, making and breaking alliances. However, it’s been ages since a full-scale war, but tensions rise when a mysterious beacon from an abandoned moon outside the galaxy reaches all the congregations. We follow a Lem from Gold, three princes from Red, a soldier from White, the king of Blue, and the leader of a rebellion in Gray as they all try to discover the source of the beacon, and race to find out what is waiting on the distant moon.