Exiled to the desolate planet Treminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.
However, the death throes of the Empire breed hostile new enemies, and the young Foundation's fate will be threatened first.

TRADERS -- And constantly in advance of the political begemony of the Foundation were the Traders, reaching out tenuous fingerholds through the tremendous distances of the Periphery. Months of years might pass between landings on Terminus; their ships were often nothing more than patchquilts of home-made repairs and improvisations; their honesty was none of the highest; their daring ... Through it all they forged an empire more enduring than the pseudo-religious despotism of the Four Kingdoms. With Psycohistoric inevitability, economic control of the Foundation will grow.