Mendoza, a young woman who has been made an immortal cyborg by the 24th-century Company, returns to sixteenth-century England in an attempt to keep a holly plant that could cure cancer from becoming extinct, but her mission is threatened when she falls in love with a mortal man.

This is the story of Alec Checkerfield: Seventh Earl of Finsbury, pirate, renegade, hero, anomaly, Mendoza's once and future love.

"In the Company, you're either a God or a Pawn, but sometimes you have to be both. The eight stories, reprinted for the first time in this collection, delve further into the history and exploits of the Company and its operatives, including Mendoza, Lewis, and Alec."--BOOK JACKET.