Cetaganda recap

Miles Vorkosigan and Ivan Vorpatril arrive in Cetaganda for the Dowager Empress's funeral and accidentally receive the Great Key to the haut gene bank from Ba Lura, who is soon found dead. Miles learns the returned Key is a decoy and investigates a plan to frame Barrayar while a satrap monopolizes secret genetic copies. Lord Yenaro's attacks lead toward Ilsum Kety, whose abduction of his own consort confirms his guilt. With Rian Degtiar and Pel Navarr, Miles boards Kety's ship, rescues the consort, and finds the genuine Key. Pel broadcasts its contents, destroying Kety's exclusive advantage. Kety and ghem-General Naru are arrested, and Naru is sentenced to death for Ba Lura's murder. Rian becomes Empress, while Miles receives Cetaganda's Order of Merit on condition that he remain publicly silent. He and Ivan depart for Barrayar with a classified account of the crisis.

Previously: Miles Vorkosigan serves Barrayar as an officer with a direct reporting relationship to Simon Illyan, chief of Imperial Security. His cousin Ivan Vorpatril is also a Barrayaran officer. Their service places both men within Barrayar's military and political structure as they prepare to represent their government abroad.

Miles Vorkosigan and Ivan Vorpatril reach Cetaganda as Barrayaran observers at the Dowager Empress's funeral. A disguised station worker enters their wrongly assigned docking bay, loses a nerve disruptor and a sealed rod, then escapes. Miles conceals the rod while waiting to consult Imperial Security. At a reception, Lord Yenaro's artistic fountain unexpectedly heats Miles's metal leg braces and burns him, raising the possibility of a deliberate attack. During the funeral procession, a haut woman named Rian Degtiar demands the rod. The station intruder is then found dead beside the bier and identified as Ba Lura, the late Empress's senior servant. A Vervani protocol officer identifies the rod as the Great Key of the Star Crèche, central to the haut genetic system. Rian says Ba Lura stole it and was trying to deliver it to an unknown recipient. Miles disproves Ba Lura's story about being attacked by Barrayaran soldiers and suspects an internal Cetagandan plot designed to blame Barrayar. He returns the Great Key to Rian, but its intended destination and the circumstances of Ba Lura's death remain unresolved.

Rian discovers that the returned Great Key is a decoy. The late Celestial Lady secretly distributed eight complete gene-bank copies to the satrap governors, and Miles concludes that Ba Lura exchanged the real Key with one governor before being directed to leave the false one with the Barrayarans. Cetagandan investigator ghem-Colonel Benin accepts Miles's evidence that Ba Lura may have been murdered. Miles and Ivan examine the governors and their consorts, initially focusing on Slyke Giaja and Ilsum Kety. Rian and Miles plan an infiltration to locate the genuine Key, while Colonel Vorreedi begins watching Miles's independent activities. Meanwhile, Yenaro's escalating pranks prove lethal: his exhibition contains an explosive disguised as an artwork, and Ivan prevents its detonation. Yenaro realizes that both he and the Barrayarans were intended to die. He identifies Kety as the patron who recruited him with the promise of an imperial appointment. The evidence now points strongly toward Kety, although Miles cannot yet determine whether Kety is directing the operation or serving another governor.

Miles continues withholding the Great Key theory from embassy security while Benin traces Ba Lura's movements. Ivan proposes recalling the distributed gene banks, which would deny the thief the material needed to exploit the Key. Rian gathers the satrap consorts, and they unanimously order the copies returned. Kety responds by withholding Sigma Sita's gene bank. His captive consort is being impersonated by ghem-General Chilian's wife, who tries to abduct Ivan and is captured when Rian overrides her bubble. Rian confirms that Kety organized the theft and directed Ba Lura's murder. Miles and Pel Navarr use the captured bubble to enter Kety's departing party. Aboard his ship, they free the real Sigma Sita consort and reach a cipher laboratory where ghem-General Naru is trying to open the genuine Great Key. Miles and Pel recover it, but Kety recaptures the consort and tries to force their surrender. Pel broadcasts the Key's contents through the emergency navigation network, ending its secrecy and Kety's exclusive leverage. Benin and Vorreedi arrive with security forces and arrest Kety and Naru for treason, with Naru also charged in Ba Lura's murder.

The arrests secure the genuine Great Key and end Kety's attempt to control the haut gene banks and frame Barrayar. Before Emperor haut Fletchir Giaja, Miles explains the theft, Ba Lura's murder, the substituted Key, and the attacks arranged through Lord Yenaro. Yenaro confirms that he acted under Kety's manipulation and is cleared as an intended victim rather than a traitor. ghem-General Naru is executed for treason and Ba Lura's murder. Kety is stripped of office and freedom and must accept supervised retirement or choose suicide, while his political allies are denied advancement. The rescued Sigma Sita consort remains alive. Benin requires personal promises against public gossip but allows formal reporting. At the final funeral ceremony, Rian Degtiar takes possession of the Star Crèche and is installed as the new Empress. Benin is promoted to ghem-General, and Giaja awards Miles the Cetagandan Order of Merit on the condition that he not publicly describe the affair. Miles, Ivan, and the delegation depart for Barrayar. Miles carries a classified account and a conspicuous foreign honor, while the haut leadership's continuing control of Cetaganda's genetic future remains a strategic concern.

Miles and Pel Navarr recover the genuine Great Key aboard Ilsum Kety's ship, but its contents are broadcast through the emergency navigation network to prevent Kety from controlling them. ghem-Colonel Benin arrests Kety and ghem-General Naru. Naru is executed for treason and Ba Lura's murder, while Kety loses his office and freedom and faces supervised retirement or suicide. Kety's captive consort survives, and Lord Yenaro is cleared as a manipulated target of the conspiracy. Rian Degtiar assumes control of the Star Crèche and is installed as Cetaganda's new Empress. Miles and Ivan Vorpatril leave for Barrayar. Miles may submit a classified military report, but his Cetagandan Order of Merit is conditioned on public silence. The immediate plot is closed, while Cetaganda's haut genetic program and the political meaning of Miles's new honor remain consequential.