The plot of "In Dark Service" concerns two central families, the Carnehans and Landors, whose children are kidnapped by slavers from the town of Northhaven in the Kingdom of Weyland. The town launches a rescue expedition to free the taken from captivity, but with little chances of success given the vast scale of the world of Pellas. The first novel focuses on both the adventures of the pursuing towns-people and the slaves' struggle to survive their harsh captivity. While little is revealed of the geophysics enabling a planet the size of Pellas to sustain habitable levels of gravity (aside from occasional references to anti-gravity stones), the geopolitical impacts of such a vast land, where inequitable access to resources causes incredible polarisation of technological progress, are explored through the narrative and the descriptions of a wide range of cultures.