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Stories are listed in order of story chronology, rather than of publication. Shards of Honor and Barrayar concern Miles' parents, while Falling Free and Ethan of Athos are set in the same universe as the other books but do not involve Miles or any of his family.
Falling Free is set about 200 years before Miles' birth. It relates the creation of the Quaddies, genetically modified people who have four arms and no legs and were created to live out their lives in space. Legally, the Quaddies are not classed as human but as "post-fetal experimental tissue cultures", and the company which created them treats them as slaves. Their access to information is tightly controlled, they can be ordered to have babies, and when a new artificial gravity technology renders them obsolete, there are discussions about killing them or sterilising them. Engineer Leo Graf, who is assigned to help train them, becomes concerned about their slavery and helps them make a successful bid for freedom. They eventually settle in an initially out-of-the-way system which gradually becomes a major part of the Nexus.
Cordelia Naismith, captain of an exploration ship from the extremely liberal and technologically sophisticated Beta Colony, is trapped on a newly-discovered planet with Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious throughout human space as the "Butcher of Komarr". In this unwelcome situation, she finds Vorkosigan is not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and begins to fall in love with him. She subsequently undertakes another mission for Beta, successfully delivering new technology to an ally which results in a Barrayaran invasion being repelled with disastrous casualties, but is captured and again encounters Vorkosigan. Back on Beta, she is hailed as a heroine until her strangely sympathetic descriptions of Vorkosigan convince Betan authorities she has been brainwashed. Naismith then escapes from Beta and goes to Barrayar, there to become Lady and later Countess Vorkosigan. The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra appoints Aral as Regent-Elect for his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor . Aral, who is at the top of the list of succession after the Prince, at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.
As Barrayar begins, the Vorkosigans are expecting their first child, the Emperor dies, and Aral takes over as Regent. An unsuccessful plot to assassinate Aral with poison gas seriously injures Miles while still a fetus. An experimental treatment is available but extremely harmful to the mother, so Cordelia undergoes a placental transfer operation and Miles is transferred to a uterine replicator – an artificial womb acquired subsequent to the recent war. While Cordelia and Aral are recuperating, a palace coup occurs but the young emperor is rescued by the loyal security chief and flown to the Vorkosigans. They escape into the hills on horseback and hide Gregor amongst the rural peasant population. After Cordelia rejoins Aral at a military base they hear that Miles, in his replicator, has been taken to the Palace as a hostage. It seems certain he will die within two weeks for lack of proper maintenance, but Aral cannot bring himself to mount a rescue for one hostage, even his son, out of hundreds. Cordelia convinces her two bodyguards to follow her on a private expedition to rescue Miles and Gregor's mother, the Princess Kareen. Once in the Palace, Cordelia and her party are captured. They overpower their captors, execute the Pretender to the throne, and escape with Miles, but the Princess is killed. The coup falls apart without its leader and peace returns to the planet. The enlightened Betan Cordelia is given control of Prince Gregor's education, with far-reaching consequences for benighted Barrayar.
When Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is born, he is a dwarf, with extremely fragile bones that tend to break under any stress. This has particular consequences on Barrayar, where birth defects are common and were subject to infanticide during the centuries of the Time of Isolation, before Barrayar was rediscovered by galactic civilization. So-called "muties" are still reviled and shunned, and Miles, though genetically healthy, will deal with prejudice throughout his life.
17-year-old Miles fails to qualify for the Barrayaran Service Academy, breaking both legs during the physical test. On a visit to Beta Colony, in quick succession he obtains a ship, a pilot, and a smuggling mission, running guns to a beleaguered government. He captures another ship from the Oseran Mercenaries, somewhat unintentionally, and presenting himself as the commander of the competing Dendarii Mercenaries co-opts the crew through sheer improvisation. Under "Admiral Naismith", the Dendarii eventually take over the rest of the Oserans and win the war.
The unexpected arrival of Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril awakens Miles to the realization that the Council of Counts has charged him with maintaining a private army: capital treason on Barrayar. He returns home posthaste, reveals the real plot behind the charges, and escapes trial by recasting the Dendarii as Imperial forces. He is rewarded with admission to the Academy.
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