Trace Hanson is an average, insecure teenager with an unusual job--he travels to alien planets through programmable wormholes and reports his findings to the Colonization Board. He's grateful to have this job not only because the alternative is prison (he was sent to the Colonial Scouts by the courts as a plea bargain for a crime he did not commit) but because here is where he met Impani, the most beautiful and brilliant girl he'd ever known.

Their relationship is tested, however, when Trace is named captain over Impani, and their team is sent to assist a colony under attack by unknown assailants. Only Trace knows of their orders to rescue the fifteen colony leaders and leave the other fifty-five people stranded. The team believes Trace was chosen captain because the colony is headed by his estranged father.

Trace's father, a wealthy landowner with political ties, funded the expedition to planet NGC920-03 because plants grow there at an accelerated rate. He intends to harness the planet and end the Federation's food shortage. The plants fight back as indestructible mold monsters.

After several people disappear, Trace realizes the creatures they are battling are actually missing colonists who have themselves been colonized by the sentient jungle. His only chance to salvage the situation is to fall back on his roots as a farm boy and learn what the plants really want. He gains their trust by allowing them to enter his mind and experience his thoughts. In the end, he saves more than the lives of seventy colonists. Through his courage and self sacrifice, he strengthens his relationship with his father, his friends, and the girl he loves, as well as gaining faith in himself.