Fed up to the back teeth with Earth's population, greedy, warring and corrupt, Cresswell decides to up-sticks and spend the rest of his days in a space tug mining asteroids. At last with all the peace and solitude that he craved, life was more bearable apart from the regular descent to the smelting stations to sell his haul. But there are a lot of strange things out in the asteroid belt; Cresswell encounters a stricken alien craft and with a heroism he never knew he had rescues the sole occupant. From that point on, the pair embark on an astounding voyage of discovery taking them to the sorry future of Earth and beyond.