Plot
"Winter's King" tells the story of Argaven, ruler of a large kingdom on Gethen, a planet whose inhabitants do not have a fixed sex. She has been kidnapped and her mind apparently altered. Fearing this, she abdicates in favour of her infant child, with a reliable regent to rule till the child Emran is old enough. With the help of aliens from distant worlds (who include Earth-humans) she travels to another planet 24 light-years away, using a Nearly-As-Fast-As-Light ship. This means 24 years pass but she is no older. News passes by means of an instantaneous communicator (ansible) and all seems well.
On this planet (Ollul) she is cured of the mind alterations, which would have made her a paranoid tyrant had she tried to carry on. There she lives and studies for 12 years, learning about the wider society of many planets and about people with two fixed sexes, very alien to her.
She then learns that things are going badly back home and is persuaded to go home, which takes another 24 years. Sixty years have now passed: her child is now old and has become a tyrant. Public opinion is with her and she is restored, with Emran committing suicide.
The story ends there. But the 1995 short story "Coming of Age in Karhide" (which appears in a collection called The Birthday of the World) mentions in passing the first and second reigns of Argaven, saying little but indicating that the second reign was a success.
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