In the days of the great sailing ships, when magnetic sails drew cargo and passengers alike to every corner of the Solar System, sailors had the highest status of all spacemen, and the crew of the luxury liner River of Stars were the envy of all solar sailors. But development of the Farnsworth fusion drive doomed the sailing ships and the once majestic River of Stars is the last, her towering mast practically vestigial, her sails unraised for years. She operates now as a tramp freighter and her crew is a motley group of misfits. When an unlikely and catastrophic engine failure strikes, the chief engineer is confident he can make repairs, but the sailors among the crew plot to save her with sail in a glorious last gasp for the old ways. The story of their doom has the inevitablility and power of a Greek tragedy.