The book opens outside a tavern on the remote and icy planet of Nilt. The unnamed narrator notices something oddly familiar about a body lying unconscious and bloody in the snow. The narrator, whom we will come to know as Breq, recognizes the unconscious person as Seivarden Vendaai, an officer of the Radchaai empire under whom Breq once served. Breq reflects that she always found Seivarden arrogant and unlikable, but nevertheless feels compelled to help her.

Breq enters the tavern where Seivarden was presumably beaten in a fight. There, she obtains a sledge and a hypothermia kit from the proprietor after agreeing to pay off Seivarden’s tab, which she suspects the proprietor has vastly inflated, or even invented. Breq calmly ignores the hostility with which others in the bar greet her. She pays the requested sums without complaint, thinking to herself that she could easily kill anyone who confront her: “I didn’t want to leave bodies behind just yet, I hadn’t come here to cause trouble” (4).

Breq finds navigating the gender differences built into the language spoken on Nilt difficult. The Radchaai language does not acknowledge gender distinctions, so choosing the appropriate pronouns challenges Breq. Although Radchaai is Breq’s first language, she herself is not Radchaai, nor has she always been human.