Poe Dameron has spent his life wanting to fly starships, and his mother, a former A-wing pilot for the Rebellion, was more than happy to show her son everything she knew. But when she dies an untimely death, Poe is left with his father, Kes Dameron, who struggles with his own grief and does his best to keep Poe close, and safe. But Poe wants more. He wants to leave the sleepy moon Yavin IV and find adventure in the wider galaxy.

When a group of smugglers offers him a job piloting them off-world, it seems like an opportunity Poe can't possibly refuse. And by the time he finds out the smugglers are actually part of the fearsome criminal enterprise called the Spice Runners of Kjimii, Poe is already in deep. His burgeoning friendship--and perhaps more--with one young Spice Runner, Zorii, is more incentive for Poe to stick around.