Miles Vorkosigan makes his debut in this frenetic coming-of-age tale. At age seventeen, Miles, four-foot, nine inches tall, and brittle-boned, after great effort is allowed to take the entrance exams to the elite military academy; he passes the written but manages, through miscalculation in a moment of anger, to break both his legs on the obstacle course, washing out before he begins. His aged grandfather, General Piotr, gradually reconciled to his mutant grandson, dies in his sleep shortly after, for which Miles blames himself. Miles is sent to visit his grandmother Naismith on distant Beta Colony, accompanied by his bodyguard Sergeant Bothari and Bothari's daughter Elena, with whom Miles is secretly in love.