Steven Sinclair's life sucks. All he wants from life is a professional career, a strong union to protect him, and comfortable company housing that is well away from the welfare slums he grew up in. As a senior engineering student at University of California, Berkley he seems on the verge of realizing his ambitions. His dreams are ruined one night when he is attacked by a street gang—the Crips, and he accidently kills one while escaping.

Steven is on the run, not from the law, from the gang. On all of Earth, it seems there is no place to hide. With the system he grew up with working against him, his only option is to flee the planet if he wants to stay alive.