It is written from the perspective of crewmember Reiki LeRoux and revolves around the crew struggling to survive on the habitable moon Zuni after a crash landing maroons them there.

The crew nevertheless do their best to continue the mission without technology, learning to communicate with the moon's inhabitants and eventually building a home and raising families.

The initial crew of the Barnard's Star Expedition consisted of twenty people when it left the solar system in 2026.

Although the crew spent forty calendar years traveling from the solar system to Barnard's Star, their aging rate during the long journey was slowed by a factor of four by the use of the drug No-Die.

They then hold those to the ground and move the front middle and left and right rear roots forward, then repeating the process.