Fernando Vargas, seventeen years old, is dead. Thorny, an infamous girl his age, is missing. The storm that has been gathering on the planet called Heaven, a harsh world seventy-six light-years from Earth, is about to break.

Gossip, rumors, and accusations about Fernando’s death escalate as the planet’s sole and overworked physician is unable to provide a reason. Thorny’s father, a former mercenary soldier, is intent on finding his difficult but beloved daughter, because no one can survive for long in Heaven’s wilds. He will need to find not only her but also Dani, another teenaged boy, who is chasing an impossible love story he will risk his life to have.

The small colony of humans that arrived on Heaven two decades earlier has managed to survive, but nobody is happy. The mystery of what happened to the two teens exposes the simmering feuds, hatreds, regrets, and personal agendas of the struggling colonists. Only a few recognize the precarious state of the settlement and strive to make it secure. Others see an opportunity to seize power.

What do you do after the starships go home? How do you grow up, live, and raise a family in the only town on a planet? A mysterious death, a disappearance, dangerous rites of passage, and a possible coup in an isolated interstellar colony create a thrilling and toxic brew. A story of coming of age, adventure, danger, mystery, and a bit of hope.

This book is set in the same universe as the Leif the Lucky series and picks up the stories of the characters who stayed behind when Leif returned to Earth at the end of Murder Under Another Sun. Twenty years have passed. Our characters are older; their children are becoming adults. This is their story.