"Edwer Thissell is having trouble adjusting to life on the planet Sirene. The Sirenese all wear masks to indicate their social status. They also communicate by playing instruments that are carefully selected for any social situation. (To make matters worse, errors of musical etiquette often prove fatal.) Shortly after Thissell arrives on Sirene, he finds himself embroiled in an unsolved murder made all the more mysterious by the fact that since everyone...

Discusses how in the 1940s, women broke free from traditional gender roles by piloting aircraft both on the homefront and in combat, making critical contributions to the Allied victory in World War II