When Theodore Lester receives an early morning call on a dead phone, he thinks it's a cruel prank. The caller insists that one of Ted's books is famous. Ted can only wish this were true. Hidden among the million other books published by overlooked authors each year, few readers know his even exist.
Or so he believes. But people of many species across the galaxy have not only read his book, they credit it for bringing about the downfall of the oppressive Galactic Sovereignty. The alien bug farm who just abducted him wants to be his agent, and he has arranged an interstellar book tour for him. They'll make a fortune, the alien insists, once they overcome a few obstacles. First, they need to establish Ted's sapience. They have to prove he's a person. As a barbarian from an uncivilized world, he's currently registered as an exotic pet. After that, they need to establish his legal claim to copyright. By default, any written work from a barbarian culture is considered primitive folklore. Anyone can publish it, and many do. And then there's the matter of the assassins. Not everyone is happy about the Sovereignty's downfall. Lucrous, the former head of Sovereignty Security, is especially upset. She, along with other felinte supremacists, are engaging in acts of piracy and terrorism to undermine the new Galactic Concordance and reestablish the Sovereignty with Lucrous as Supreme Sovereign. When she discovers that Ted is not only real but is also out and about the galaxy promoting the hated book that helped defeat her beloved Sovereignty, she plans to make an example of him.