To end a famine, the people of Qaralon have been driven to the stars in search of a good farming planet; now, the scouts have finally found one teeming with life. The problem is, it's also teeming with humans, a stubborn species that doesn't give up without a fight. After fifty years of brutal war, Earth is trying to find balance, peace, and hope once again.

Born and raised on his parents' ship, the Universe Explorer, during the war, Jonathon Casey is a true child of the stars. Everyone assumes that he will run his own ship one day, but Jonathon had other ideas. He becomes a child therapist instead-but he can't resist the call of the open skies for long and returns to space to protect the earth.

But now that the fighting has ended, his attentions shift back to caring for the children of war, those innocents who have lost everything. Despite the best efforts to protect them, many are damaged, scarred, and lost. For those left behind, the government-run homes are far from a safe sanctuary. The kids do whatever they need to do to survive on the streets, and it is to this group of scrappy survivors that he was drawn.

To bring his new dream to life, Jonathon pulls the old family spaceship out of retirement and recruits twenty boys from the streets for his new crew. Not even Captain Casey could have predicted what these young men were capable of when put to the test.