In a fantastical world, a scientist discovers that the human brain, melded onto the the kneel of a starship, could manipulate space and make interstellar travel faster than before. After his execution, people turned to growing eagle brains with human-like intelligence so that they could harvest its organ for space travel without moral repercussions.

One eagle brain, named Nerissa, was installed into a beautiful ship that, after centuries of warfare, became abandoned in a shipyard. Her brain was discovered years later by a merchant who sold it to the king's tinker. The tinker fashions her a beautiful bejeweled metal body and presents her to the king. Impressed, the king gifts her to a duke to settle a debt, and that is where Denali Eu, son of a renowned and now bankrupt trader, finds her.

Desperate to rescue his parents from destitution, Denali successfully wins Nerissa from the duke in a gambling game and plans to separate her brain from her body and fuse it with his starship. However, upon meeting her, he realizes her charm and cannot in good faith force her to undergo the painful operation. Instead, he volunteers himself for the operation. Once his brain is fused with the starship, and with Nerissa as the pilot, the duo embark on lucrative adventures and provide for Denali's aging parents.