In this new release, Cloud of Dreams, Sherrie DeMorrow explains the backstories of Alexander Pennece DeMilo and Cynthia Lear, before the point of their abduction from Earth. DeMilo is a 20th century thespian, who is descended from Italian players and the prominent English aristocratic Woodes-Hastings lineage. Lear is a middle-aged housewife, who suffered a difficult childhood based on a grievous family background and a country which did not understand her. She relocates to England to marry and in the course of starting a family, she was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
It was a quirk of fate that lifeforms from beyond Earth's realm would put Cynthia and Alexander Pennece together, as seen in the previous book, Knight and Daye, by the same author.