Set around the middle of the twenty-first century, the book is about a journey to Mars that has gone wrong. NASA personnel, faced with massive budgetary cutbacks, are taxed to the limits of their ingenuity to construct the appropriate technology for the rescue mission. Dealing with the complexities of spacecraft technology, the novel also has running through it the machinations of corrupt politicians and business leaders who have their own agenda to follow—an agenda based on greed and personal gain.