Earth is dying. Li Kichida's job, as a member of the first Martian colony, is to find a way to make Mars habitable and self-sustaining. Her seemingly impossible task is made even more difficult by her personal problems. She's forgetful. She doesn't fit in well with the other colonists. And she has a crippling phobia of alarms.
But when some of her fellow colonists turn violent, she'll have to put those problems aside and find a way to save the colonyand all of mankind.