The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars with a diameter of about four hundred light-years, encompasses more than six hundred worlds connected by a network of transport tunnels known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: a star over a thousand light-years away disappears. It does not go out in a supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply vanishes. Since the location is too far to reach via a wormhole, a faster-than-light spaceship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to find out what has happened and whether it poses a threat. The ship is commanded by Wilson Kime, a five-times rejuvenated former NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him. Opposing the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a sect that believes humanity is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer.