Time travel, aliens, and the politics of sexuality combine with tragic violence in Frey's deeply satisfying debut. Aliens seeking refuge from their broken planet find it on peaceful Earth. Gwen Pierson and Basil Grey work for the U.N., helping the aliens to integrate. When alien Kalp joins their team, they learn that Kalp's people mate in threes, and soon the trio become the first humanûalien marriage. Violent protests and assassinations threaten to unravel the fragile trust between the refugees and their human hosts, so Gwen and Basil follow the assassins—back in time to the 1980s, where Gwen's parents are still adjusting to raising newborn Gwennie.