The action takes place on two spaceships in the Medusa nebula and in flashbacks to Earth where the first Prufrax lived when she was not fighting in the war against the Senexi. The human spaceship, huge enough to contain a park and numerous people, is a world-in-miniature where information is rigorously controlled. Prufrax, like all "Glovers," is denied any information not directly related to her task of killing the enemy; even her entertainment is restricted to depictions of violence and heroic glovers.

Her love life is rigorously regulated, with unseen "overs" choosing who she may or may not have as friends or lovers, and her emotional development, sexual responsiveness, and ability to conceive are controlled with equal severity. Her body, as controlled from without as her mind, is without explanation manipulated to serve the ends of others—her fingers are mutilated to make them fit the gloves she...