Set primarily in the future year of 2026 on the MF-1 Space Station, it revolves around the eponymous Gwendy Peterson, a sixty-four-year-old United States Senator from Maine.

It has been twenty years since Richard Farris relieved her of the button box, but now it is back and she must face overwhelming obstacles before she can destroy it once and for all.

First, her husband Ryan is killed in a freak hit and run accident when Gwendy is campaigning for the United States Senate.

Even though Gwendy was ready to step aside from politics, she was persuaded to run for a Senate seat in Maine against a man who supported lies and ideas that would harm the country.

Gwendy's friend, Charlotte Morgan, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had her agents investigate the crash.

While there, Gwendy planned to participate in a spacewalk where she would send the button box into deep space with the help of a small rocket.

Gwendy later explains to Kathy Lundgren, the operation commander, the power of the button box and the need to dispose of it.

As she loses oxygen in her suit, Gwendy imagines herself as an old lady in her childhood bed, surrounded by her friends as she dies.