The colony ship from Earth had been on its way to the Coronis colony — a flourishing mining settlement — where crews of engineers and technicians had been working for 10 years preparing the planet for settlement and studying its ecology. But disaster had struck.

Thrown off course by a gravitational storm, the ship had lost its orientation equipment in the first shock and been forced to locate the nearest star system with a potentially habitable planet and try to land. One-third of the crew had been killed in the crash, and the ship had been critically damaged. But the remaining colonists still entertained the hope of repair and escape from the cold but beautiful planet with the huge red sun and four moons.

Until the ghost wind, carrying psychedelic pollen, started to blow, and Darkover’s aboriginal race claimed them for their own....