Warning: Adult content.
This could also be called 'The Report of the First Expedition to 61 Cygni' because it concerns the expedition of the Presidente Lula, a ship that was launched a generation before Gordon's Lamp, one who left Earth thinking the planet at 61 Cygni would be tide locked, even though spectral data hinted at life and an eighty four hour rotation period.
The people and media of Kassidor Yakhan are fascinated by the antics of the couple from YingolNeerie as they try to struggle thru the cultural differences between them and their new home and between the nations they came from. Eventually the natives come to realize the importance of their 'mating ritual' in the light of ephemerality, something they have not faced for thousands of years.
This is another look at another aspect of the differences between an eternal and ephemeral society. In this case it is the fact that ephemeral societies spread genes by reproduction and eternal societies spread genes by conjugation, and what that difference looks like in day-to-day life. Both sides start out by thinking the other is immoral, but some learn to take what good they can from each other.
The structure of this novel is simpler than the others of the Gordon's Lamp series in that there is only a single time line. In spite of that it is considered the fourth in the series and picks up only a generation after 'Zhlindu' leaves off.