University student Alex Sharma, high society attorney Gwen Mendez, and sheltered young woman Tessa Corcoran are connected by a universe-altering secret.​After his parents and sister are killed in an aircar accident, Alex Sharma moves to Mars to start a new life at Kepler University, his father's alma mater. He soon realizes that his father was not who he seemed, and as he digs into the mystery that was Ben Sharma's existence, Alex quickly finds himself at the center of an entangled knot of interplanetary intrigue and personal alliances he didn't even know existed. When he begins dating Gwen's niece, Natalie, it sets in motion a chain of events that cannot be undone.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Settled Space, Tessa Corcoran is discovering that her life in the idyllic village of River's Bend may not be as simple as it seems after her father begins to suffer from a mystery ailment that confounds medical science. As their journey takes them from Earth to Mars to the most obscure corners of Settled Space and eventually beyond, Alex and Tessa will be forced to confront startling new realities that will change not only their fate but all of humanity's.