Things are never so bad they can't get worse. For the Brightstars they just did.
Laren Brightstar knows his family's in serious trouble. If he doesn't finish building the heat exchanger before Opposition's heat sets in they'll all perish. Then what little money they have is confiscated and he's hauled off to territorial prison in a midnight raid, leaving his teenaged son, Dirck, responsible for the family's welfare.
Above everything else, Dirck is acutely aware that none of this would have happened if his missing sister, Creena, had followed the rules.
Unaware of the chaos left in her wake, Creena only wants to get back home. The planet where she hopes to find assistance complicates her situation even further, stranding her on a backward world where evil forces follow her wherever she goes.
Will each of them survive long enough to ever be together again?