Lorelei Verlassen took the first job she could get after finishing her PhD: installing comm relays in the ice belt. There she found a crashed alien space probe, containing blueprints for a faster-than-light engine. Without knowing if the probe's creators still exist, she and her crewmates persuade The Conference of Nations to build a starship, to launch a new era of space exploration for all humanity. But various factions conspire to subvert the project...