"It's not one thing, Bill . . . It's the rain, and the winds, and the dust, and the heat . . . the food, things you can't identify, things that taste like string. No milk. No coffee. No eggs. No meat . . . Being hot, cold, drenched, parched, tired, and restless, all within an hour or so. Oh I could scream!"

Life on Mars was far from heavenly for the refugees of Earth. Joining the existing human colony on the Red Planet gave them life, but at what price?

As time passes, Bill Easson will see first-hand the lengths to which humanity can be pushed . . . and the new frontiers on which it can survive.