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The story takes place in the backdrop of Trantor's rise from a large regional power to a galaxy-wide empire, unifying millions of worlds. This story occurs around the year 11,000 A.D. (originally 34,500 A.D., according to Asimov's early 1950s chronology), when the Trantorian Empire encompasses roughly half of the galaxy.
The independent planet Sark exploits the planet Florina and derives its great wealth from kyrt, a versatile fiber that can only be grown on Florina. The relationship between the two planets is analogous to the situation between imperial powers and their colonies during the mid-20th century, where the Florinians are forced to work in kyrt fields and are treated as an inferior race by the Sarkites. Attempts to break the Sark monopoly and grow kyrt on other worlds have thus far been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Trantor would like to add these two worlds to its growing empire.
There is a hidden joke or irony in Sark's dominion over Florina: clear parallels to the American South growing cotton with slave labor. The Florinians are one of the lightest-skinned people in a galaxy where racial categories seem to have been forgotten, but except by the people of Sark. One of the characters, Dr. Selim Junz, comes from Libair, a planet with some of the galaxy's darkest-skinned people, and feels sympathy for the Florinians. (The planet Libair takes its name from Liberia, a country in Africa, which would explain a dark-skinned genetic inheritance)
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