Venus was a goldmine, a planet rotten with mineral wealth and unexploited resources, and tales filtered back to Earth and Mars, were whispered in the Domes of Mercury and wondered at in the dives of the outer planets. Venus was new and strange and a man, with luck and a little ruthlessness, could make his pile and retire to terrestrial luxury. But what if a man didn't have any luck? What if everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and left him stranded on a strange alien world? What then?