Dozens of interstellar portals are open and ready to be inhabited. Adventurers from all planets, stations and asteroids set out on journeys in search of a better life. Meanwhile, the solar system is on the verge of collapse: ships of colonists disappear without a trace, powerful military forces create secret associations, terrorist attacks keep the inner planets at bay, the last sample of a protomolecule is stolen. The past returns and charges a very high price for it. While a new order of further existence is being established in fire and blood, for Captain James Holden and his crew, the struggle for survival and salvation of what is left of our solar system begins.