Imagine realizing one day that the people you've known, the places you're familiar with, and the ideas about the world you've depended on aren't even remotely what they seem. Raystar's thirteenth year on Nem' is filled with love, some boredom, and pretty much everything else you'd expect in a kid's life. Her adoptive mother and father adore her, and her older sister is living up to her job description. Nem', the only world she's known, is about as sleepy as you would expect from an agricultural planet (minus the wildlife). Raystar leads a near picture-perfect existence packed with star-gazing and a few school friends; the only clouds on the horizon are quarrels with her sister, the many chores on the farm, and the insane headaches that plague her.

But suddenly, everything changes. Eighteen hundred years ago, before the Galactic War, Nem' was a Human world. While pockets of Humanity remain scattered through the Convergence, Raystar is the only Human left on Nem'. And as she's learning, she's unique in other ways, too. In a blink, the pan-Galactic conflict that everyone thought was long over shows up at her doorstep. In a blink, she discovers that she has immense powers, and that her very survival is threatened.

To live, and to protect those she loves, she must learn to control the tremendous powers at her disposal. To save Humanity, she needs to unlock the secrets of her legacy.

To save herself, she needs to figure out what it means to be Human.