 In the distant future, the wealthy can afford "pocket universes"--dimensions split off from our own, private paradises for their owners where even the physical laws may be altered. Designing these realms becomes a new art form, and one renowned designer, Rene Korda, is now living in comfortable retirement aboard his ship the Jester. But a representative of the Terran Government contacts Korda, telling him a mysterious criminal is sending one pocket universe after another into stasis, shutting down time itself within their boundaries. Reluctantly, Korda agrees to reactivate the universes and track down the criminal. Ultimately, he learns the culprit is a former student of his, and the wealth behind the victimized universes came from the rape and destruction of a peaceful world two decades before.