Nate Page is a playwright. He is also a man who lives beyond his means, and so when his agent has booked him the task of writing a musical based on the Velvet Comet he has to deliver. His employer has arranged for him to spend time aboard the space station to familiarise himself with the location for the play. He has a limited time to write the play and only Cupid, the ship's computer for companionship.

With the help of Cupid and an assistant provided to him (mainly he believes to spy on him to ensure he is working) he researches the past of the station and the people who worked there. But the more he finds out, the more he discovers the actual events that occurred are not something he can produce for his play. This truth being that the veneer of happiness was precisely that, a thin covering over the reality – the prostitutes in the Comet were not as happy as they appeared to the clients, and many of them were quite the reverse. A fact reinforced by the number of suicides and drug addicts he finds amongst the former workers.

This leads into the main relationship of this book, that of Nate Page and the ship's computer Cupid. Cupid has a compulsion to tell the truth and tries to persuade Page to write a serious drama telling the true story of the Velvet Comet. Given his negative feelings about his assignment and his liking of producing serious work he is tempted to write this honest gritty drama, but he quickly sees that this is not a theme he can afford to pursue, his brief being to produce a hit show.

This is an odd way to end the series about the Velvet Comet, being as the Comet has been closed for a quarter of a century at the time of the story. But this is possibly the strongest of the four for this. The computer steals the show, it's purpose to see the truth is told compels it to attempt every coercion it can to affect the style of Page's play.

Although to fully enjoy this book you would be best advised to read the previous three books, it is possible to read this as a standalone, but given that this is available in an omnibus edition with the other three novels in the series and the comfortable style of writing, reading them first will not be a problem.