No one was more revered by the Kanalist movement than the fugitive playwright and actor, Evan Larkspur. Now the Column dictators decide that Larkspur -- or the actor Larkspur is currently pretending to be -- will be the perfect spy for them to send against none other than . . . Evan Larkspur. On the decadent waterworld Venezia, Larkspur the spy auditions for and wins the leading role in the play of Larkspur the pretender. And as the spy plays his parts, onstage and off, he begins to wonder which is truly the leader returned and which the deluded imposter. For there can only be one Evan Larkspur . . . or can there?