A cheap faster-than-light drive has permitted populating the galaxy. Each planet has become home for different social groups. 400 years post-diaspora, a Earth spaceship visits three — a 1st step to galactic unification. Things don't go as hoped, as the ship's incompetent military authoritarians encounter three very different societies.

Once a penal colony, the 1st planet is a kleptocratic despotism. The 2nd, Hygeia, is populated by health & fitness fanatic nudists. The 3rd, Kassim, was colonized by a religious group. As the ship arrives they can't find anyone, only overgrown villages. They don't land as the captain fears disease. The 4th, K22g, has an unusual social system. The population call themselves Gands after Gandhi & practice a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance & a money-free economic system of barter and favor-exchange.