On a hard-bitten mining asteroid in the outer system, twelve-year-old Joey is supposed to swing a pickaxe, follow The Book, and grow into a good citizen of The Mining Society. Instead, he sketches in his secret notebook and reads the rocks better than the ore machines.

When his pick uncovers a mysterious glassy tile etched with glowing blue stars, Joey realizes it is a thousand-year-old map, pointing to a hidden tomb somewhere deep in the Trojan cluster. Together with Stan, the governor’s brilliant and restless son, Joey jumps off his world for the first time, crossing from rock to rock, dodging slavers in ancient gunships and encountering the feared  cannibal “reffies."

With his air running out, foremen in pursuit, and an emergency beacon calling both rescuers and worse, Joey must choose what kind of life he wants: a safe existence as a loyal miner or a dangerous, uncertain future defined by his own choices.