The setting of the book is a gigantic interstellar monarchy called the Interstellar Condominium of Planets and Empires, (ICOPE), ruled by an Emperor and Empress; with two chambers of a legislature to pass laws. One fateful day the Emperor unexpectedly dies. The Empress, instead of staying on the Capital Planet called Empire Prime, chooses to leave her home planet and resettle on a planet far, far away from the Empire. The planet she happens to choose is Earth. The ultra-advanced medical technology of the Empire allowed the Empress Emeritus Zinabar to still look like a teenaged girl, even when she was several-hundred-years old. During this span Zina made friends with, and actually rode, flying horses from another world, had a very nasty interaction with a "Trecian Witch", and had a fateful encounter with a pack of vicious "Claw Cats", whose claws and fur were filled with venom!