Keith R. A. DeCandido's novelization adapts the 2005 film that capped Joss Whedon's short-lived Firefly, following the crew of the transport ship Serenity as their fugitive passenger, the psychic River Tam, becomes the target of a ruthless government agent known only as the Operative. Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew must decide whether to stay hidden or risk everything to learn what the Alliance is so desperate to bury about her past.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources