A spacer races down the streets of Paris with fellow Spacer friends Bo, Lou, Muse, and Kelly. Their mischief is fun until a young man politely asks if they shouldn't leave. Muse sees the police and yells at them to head out; they go up and come down in Houston, then travel all the way to Matamoros, Texas. They wonder in whispers whether the couple transporting them are frelks or just well-intentioned kids grateful for the work Spacers do for the government. As soon as they've gotten off the van, a woman asks if they can leave. The Spacer asks if she is a frelk; she smiles and says the Spacer has nothing to offer her, which is a shame because they look like they once were a woman, and she likes women.

The Spacers head back to Houston, then to Istanbul, where they drink tea and swap stories of picking up rich frelks and beating up frelks queer for other frelks. They break up to pursue their own adventures and the Spacer is approached by a young woman. She can't pay them; she laments the whole business of neutering Spacers in their training to advance space technology. Spacers have the whole spinning galaxy to themselves _and _they have frelks tied to the earth who love them hopelessly; a combination she detests. The Spacer is not hurt by any of her insults, she is fascinated by them, and they invite themselves over at no price. She serves them a plate of delicacies, then asks if she can bring over some friends who like Spacers. They are uncomfortable with the suggestion, and she asks brusquely what they want. They are lonely, they say, and she says she is lonely too, but she doesn't think they can give her what she's looking for. Finally she, too, asks if they shouldn't leave. The Spacer leaves for a Spacer hangout in the New City, where Kelly is buying the friends food and beer after the fat sum she received from a frelk.