Paths converge on Ceres when Drummer and her fleet arrive to aid the relief effort. Holden tries to convince Avasarala to release crucial information that might avert catastrophe, but she has her own request of him. As Amos and Bobbie get a little R&R at the station, Naomi has a difficult and long-awaited reunion.
Two hundred years in the future, in a fully colonized Solar System, detective Josephus Miller, born in the asteroid belt, is given the assignment to find a missing young woman, Julie Mao. Joining his task is James Holden, formerly first officer of an ice freighter who is involved in an incident caused by the tense relationship between Earth, Mars and the Belt. Soon the two find out that the missing woman is connected to a vast conspiracy.