"I won't go. I won't, I won't!"

Radhika Harvey does not want to go to the Crater School, but her father offers her no choice. Radhika's beloved mother is deathly ill in the Sanatorium across the Lowell Crater from the school; it's the obvious place to send her. And how can a disgraced father care properly for a young girl on his own?

The Crater School has taken in children from all across the province, which means from many different cultures and creeds, but never yet a half-Indian army brat who absolutely doesn't want to be there. Her arrival—and her temper—will challenge both staff and pupils, throughout an explosive Martian summer...