Anakin Skywalker – the Chosen One – is dead. Instead, Darth Vader emerges, hunting down the Jedi who survive the destruction of their temple on Coruscant. From the site of Anakin Skywalker's last battle – on the burning surface of the planet Mustafar, where he attempted to destroy his friend and former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi – emerges a terrifying shadow dressed in black. Once the most powerful Knight the Jedi Order had ever known, he is now a disciple of the dark side, lord of the fearsome Sith, and the vengeful right hand of the reckless new Emperor of the galaxy. Anakin Skywalker is dead... and Darth Vader lives.

The information about the events that created him – the failed move by the Jedi Council against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the vengeful order of the self-proclaimed Emperor to exterminate the Jedi, and the massacre of Anakin's companions and Masters in the Jedi temple – has not reached all corners. On the Outer Rim planet Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak, along with Padawan Olee Starstone, lead an assault against a Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide, red with Jedi blood, has suddenly turned against them.

When the three manage to escape execution – and become desperate prey in a chase across space – it is neither the clone troopers, nor the new stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the money-hungry Emperor that they must fear most. The deadliest threat lurks in the ghastly swift and deadly crystalline blade of Darth Vader – behind the grim mask lies a shattered heart, an arched soul and a cunning, twisted mind ready to take revenge.

For the dwindling number of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy, somehow, someday, is to be reclaimed. Yet, equally crucial is the well-being of the twin infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the children of Anakin and his doomed bride, Padmé Amidala. Divided after Padmé's death, they must be safeguarded at all costs, so that the hope they represent for the future does not turn into horror under the new Sith regime – and the dreadful power of the dark side.