Our world is dying, people are starving and fighting wars over the few remaining resources. World Builder Corporation says it has developed the technology to build new worlds and is recruiting thousands of volunteers to train on its state-of-the-art space station.

Vincent Cosa accepts that challenge. Unable to find work, despised by his ex-wife, and seeking a better life, Vince volunteers to be a World Builder recruit. Once he arrives at the space station and is given a number, however, he realizes that dozens of recruits are sent to the asteroid belt every day and are never heard from again.

Back on Earth, Vince's sister wants to know what happened to Vince and the other recruits who have disappeared into space. When she is not able to get answers from the Corporation, she teams up with an outlaw hacker and an underground group of astronomers from SETI, and begins to discover that something is very wrong on the World Builder space station. Even as World Builder Corporation struggles with financial collapse, her search goes far beyond a family affair.

Will what is happening in the asteroid belt give hope to humanity, or destroy it?