In 1947, there's an alien invasion looming and humankind's best hope is a brilliant nineteen-year-old woman.

When the A-bomb ended the war, with a power unlike anything humans had ever witnessed, Mary Goss was driven to gain the knowledge to prevent another war from ever beginning. Now the Army has come calling, looking for "a few good men" for a top-secret project. Instead, they find that the best and brightest is Mary.

Much to Mary's horror, the project reveals an alien invasion. Yet at every turn, her efforts to intervene are thwarted by small-minded engineers who can't look past her gender and age. She'd dealt with her fair share of discrimination in university, but with the fate of the world on the line, there isn't time to waste on petty differences.