Jupiter-born Jarls Anders is enormously strong-molded, like his fellow Jovians, by the giant planet's crushing gravity, which kills all but the hardiest babies in the womb, and which over the generations has selected for strength and survivability. Like his fellow Jovians, Jarls is a bit of an innocent - an unpolished rustic derisively called "cloudhopper" by the sophisticates of Earth and Venus. The story follows Jarls... adventures on three planets as his illusions are gradually stripped away, and he transforms himself from indentured workie to a major player in solar politics.