Cat the halfbreed telepath hero of Catspaw and Psion joins a research team on Refuge homeworld of his mother''s people the Hydrans. Immediately he finds trouble when he helps a Hydran woman escape human pursuers.The decimated Hydran population of Refuge is confined to a bleak homeland by a huge corporate state Tau Biotech. Tau also controls Refuge''s one unique natural resource Dreamfall. The tangible residue of cast-off thoughts from beautiful enigmatic cloud whales dreamfall forms vast reefs sacred to the Hydrans but mere exploitable data to Tau.Caught between Tau and desperate Hydrans who fight to reclaim their world Cat must somehow forge the ruins of the past into a means to defeat Tau''s brutality to save his people--and himself.