After a millennium of travel, the generation ship Hope is within thirty years of its destination planet, and a small group of brave couples will take a faster ship to ready the planet for colonization. Anastasia (Anya) Cartier, a teenage artist and nature-lover, wants to be part of that group. Her parents, however, have other plans for her. They want her to marry a particular guy, from a particular family, so pure whites can continue for another generation. They don’t much care that Ryan, the guy in question, doesn’t care about Anya, her pursuits, or her goals. He has agreed to an illegal betrothal to Anya only to gain her influential parents’ support for his own ambitions to be ship captain.

Anya usually avoids conflict, but her dreams are important enough that she will figure out a way to convince Ryan to join her on the colony team. If that doesn’t work, she’ll take more drastic action. She can’t stay imprisoned on Hope forever.