Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, skilled diplomat, and devastating fighter. But he is also a man of peace—and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war.

The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground for the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba—Mace's former Padawan—to the planet to train the local tribesmen as a guerrilla resistance force to fight against the Separatists. But Depa has vanished. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording that hints of madness and murder…a recording in Depa's own voice.

Mace Windu trained her. Only he can find her. Now Mace must journey alone into one of the most treacherous jungles in the galaxy—and into his own heritage. He will leave behind the Republic he serves, the civilization he believes in, everything but his passion for peace and his devotion to his former Padawan. And he will learn the terrible price that must be paid when keepers of the peace are forced to make war.