Renna has one chance to survive—earn a berth on an intra-planet cargo ship. Her only problem is 'norms' crew them and don't like crewkin, calling them podders. She can never join another crewkin who man the long-haul ships of space. Their closed society is formed at birth, and they live and die together. Her crewkin died, but she failed in her duty to join them. If she fails again, she may never crew on another ship. As a former crewkin, however, she differs from norms, which makes her duty even more difficult.