Synopsis: Gaet, Hoemei and Joesai are three clone brothers, survivors of the rigorous and deadly process of nurture and weeding that produces people of high kalothi, people worthy of surviving on the inhospitable planet of Geta. Geta was settled many thousands of years ago by human starships, but only legends of the people's origins remain, memories that have become myths. Geta is not a friendly place for humanity, but mankind, true to its immemorial instincts, has adapted. There is almost no metal, so technology remains primitive, but bioengineering has developed incredibly. The natural vegetation is poisonous to man, and the hot climate and recurring droughts lead to crop failure of the Earth grains that are the staff of life. In times of famine the people turn to the only other available crop: themselves. The religion and the social institutions are based on a belief that species survival is more important than the individual, and ritual cannibalism based on a form of directed natural selection dictates that the weak and less worthy must feed the strong so that life will continue. The three brothers joined forces as children and have saved one another's lives and become a powerful influence in their city-state of the Clan Kaiel. Their union has been strengthened by joint marriage to two wives, Noe and Teenae, but they seek a Six by courting Kathein, an important biologist. Prime Predictor Aesoe is also attracted to her, however, and instead orders the brothers to court and wed Oelita the Heretic. Oelita lives in a neighboring province, preaches against the accepted practices of human sacrifice, and works ceaselessly to find ways to make the practices unnecessary by developing native foods that will not poison the eater. Joesai, the warrior brother, is dispatched to commence the courting but peremptorily commences a mating ritual, the Courtship Rite, which consists of an increasingly difficult series of seven deadly trials. If Oelita survives all trials, then the final result will be either marriage or the death of the brothers. (from the flaps of the first edition dust jacket)