The brutal Yuuzhan Vong are scouring the universe for Jedi to slaughter. With no help from the divided New Republic, the Jedi stand alone against their seemingly invincible foe. Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo risk deadly consequences with their controversial tactics to bolster the Jedi resistance. After uncovering a new Yuuzhan Vong menace, Anakin and Tahiri find themselves wanted for murder by the Peace Brigade. To avoid capture, they jump into hyperspace… and into trouble far graver.
Hunted by the Yuuzhan Vong, wanted as criminals by the New Republic, and with unrest stirring within their own ranks, the Jedi find peril everywhere they turn. But even in the midst of despair, while the most fiercest battle of all looms on the horizon, hope arises with the birth of one very special child…
The novel follows several different stories. The first is of an adventure with Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila and Corran Horn. With the Jedi students residing aboard the Errant Venture following the Yuuzhan Vong's capture of Yavin 4 in the previous novel, Anakin is looking after Tahiri, who is still recovering from the traumatic events she endured in the late Mezhan Kwaad's hands back on Yavin 4. Anakin decides to go with Corran down to the planet Eriadu to collect supplies for the Errant Venture, and Tahiri decides to come along. However, Anakin and Tahiri encounter a Rodian Jedi named Kelbis Nu who is killed by the locals, but before he dies, he utters the word "Yag'Dhul" to Anakin. Anakin and Tahiri are captured by the authorities, who are anti-Jedi, Yuuzhan Vong sympathizers. But the two Jedi escape the authorities' clutches and leave Eriadu via the transport shuttle with Corran. However, the Errant Venture was forced to make another erratic hyperspace jump to make sure that the Jedi students aboard are safe, as well as respond to a call by Luke Skywalker. So Anakin, Tahiri and Corran's shuttle try to follow through hyperspace as well, but they're pulled out by a dovin basal mine in a Yuuzhan Vong shipyard. They are spotted by the Vong forces, and their transport is destroyed, but not before the three Jedi manage to escape and secretly hop aboard one of the ships. The ship travels to Yag'Dhul as a scout ship for the rest of the armada that the three Jedi came out on, and during the hyperspace jump to the planet, Anakin, Tahiri and Corran take control of the ship by eliminating the warriors and getting the willful help from the Shamed Ones so that when the ship arrives at Yag'Dhul, the three Jedi are able to warn the Givin species about the invasion on their home planet. When they do arrive, the Givin are sceptical about the Jedi's claims, and have them imprisoned until this can be worked out. But when the Yuuzhan Vong invasion at Yag'Dhul begins, the three Jedi are freed to help the Givin, but are lead into a Vong warrior trap by Executor Nom Anor. Anakin comes up with a plan that could have him, Tahiri and Corran escape the Vong's clutches by challenging their group's commander, Shok Choka, into an honor duel. Anakin wins the duel by decapitating Choka, and cuts through the hull of the space station they're on just as the Vong stationed aboard elsewhere the ship begin to breach the station to space. Corran puts Anakin and Tahiri into a locker while he goes to find spacesuits, and with air running out steadily, Anakin and Tahiri share three kisses, figuring that they would die soon anyway. However, Corran returns with the spacesuits, thus saving all three of their lives, and they escape the space station as the battle continues. Meanwhile, Nom Anor, in order to protect his secret cowardice from getting out, uses a blaster to execute the remaining Vong warriors, including Qau Lah, a relative of Warmaster Tsavong Lah, who had all witnessed him turning down Corran's honor duel before Anakin decided to face off against Choka. Later, the Givin win the Battle of Yag'Dhul by default when the remaining Vong forces from the battle withdraw to Sernpidal in order to fend off the New Republic attack there, and thus, the unsteady truce between the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong that was made after the Battle of Duro is over, and Anakin and Tahiri's relationship has gone up a new level.
Meanwhile, prior to the Yuuzhan Vong's withdrawal from Yag'Dhul to Sernpidal, Jaina Solo is tricked by Jedi Master Kyp Durron, along with all of his other fellow X-wing pilots and the bulk of the New Republic military, headed by General Wedge Antilles, into attacking the Vong shipyards at Sernpidal in order to destroy a superweapon that could be the downfall of the New Republic. But, in reality, the shipyards happened to be where Vong civilians were stationed at, as Jaina would find out when the Battle of Sernpidal ended, and when she would interrogate Kyp for this, he revealed that he did this to make the Vong realize what attacking the New Republic citizens across the galaxy felt. Jaina slaps him for this, and tells him that she wouldn't offer him any water even if it were her spit.
The third story concerns Jacen Solo traveling with his parents, C-3PO, R2-D2, his mother's Noghri bodyguards, Meewalh and Adarakh, across the galaxy so that Jacen could avoid the grasp of the Yuuzhan Vong and all of their sympathizers, considering that Jacen has a special price on his head for humiliating Warmaster Tsavong Lah at Duro. Jacen has a personal conflict with his father over Jacen's moral values concerning the war, but they make up for it as father and son, and successfully escape Warmaster Lah's grasp after departing from Tatooine.
The fourth story concerns Nen Yim, trying to save the worldship that she is stationed at by secretly using heresy. Regardless, her blasphemous efforts are fruitless, and she is confronted by Supreme Overlord Shimrra's Shamed familiar, Onimi, disguised as Master Shaper Kae Kwaad, over her efforts to save the worldship. However, Onimi reveals that saving the worldship is a pointless, fruitless effort that would be better spent on defeating the New Republic, and for his unwillingness to save the lives of the Vong aboard the worldship, she tries to kill him. Yim later accesses the Vong's memory Qahsa and finds that there is no eighth cortex, as the Vong originally believed, and that everything that they live and fight for is a lie. With this realization, Onimi, who foils Yim's attempts to kill him, reveals his true nature to her, and introduces her to Shimrra. The Supreme Overlord demands that if there is no eighth cortex, then Yim will create one that would be able to overthrow the New Republic and elevates her to Master Shaper rank. Yim accepts.
The final story concerns Luke Skywalker, and his wife, Mara, when Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya demands an arrest warrant for the both of them following the events at Yavin 4. Kenth Hamner warns them about this, allowing them enough time to escape Coruscant thanks to the Errant Venture. But it turns out that Fey'lya is giving the Skywalkers enough time to escape, as the New Republic no longer supports the New Jedi Order, so that the Jedi are still able to fight the Yuuzhan Vong, even if not on the New Republic's terms. However, before, during and after their escape from the New Republic capital planet, Mara finds that her coomb spore virus has returned, and can kill her unborn son. But after their escape from Coruscant, Luke tries to use the dark side of the Force to expel the virus from Mara's system. But it doesn't work, though what does is combining his Force strength with Mara's and his child's. Thus, the virus is permanently expelled from Mara, and Ben Skywalker is born. The Solos and the Skywalkers' friends all see the newborn Ben, a glimmer of hope and life in one of the greatest wars the galaxy has ever seen.
- ISBN 0345446100, August2001, Del Rey, 292-page paperback.
- ISBN 0375416838, July 31, 2001, Random House Audio, Abridged cassette.
- ISBN 9788025212608; August 6, 2009, EGMONT ČR, 238-page Czech paperback (Nový řád Jedi. Hranice vítězství II - Přerod)