Jayne Wu is an inexplicably lucky 13-year-old in a future Earth obsessed with its own survival. The Swarm, a meteor field billions of kilometers across, will soon smash through the solar system, destroying all life-and possibly the planet itself. The only hope for humankind's survival are the biomes: twelve asteroid-sized escape vessels constructed in orbit to travel to and colonize distant worlds with the best Earth can offer. Jayne (nicknamed Thirteen) wants only to leave the Nursery, train to be a Technical Electrical Mechanical Fixer, and become part of the "great adventure." And, of course, play GravBall.

But Jayne's mind is extraordinary, and she soon attracts attention from the organized crime Consortium, the Sentinels, the World Police, and the Forevers: a cabal of ultra-rich who will stop at nothing to subvert society's colonization plans to their own diabolical ends.

They all want to use her. To survive, Jayne must decide whom to trust.