Avey Fleming is an Edmonton grad student given a rare opportunity to do research at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii. Driven and ambitious, he hunts feverishly for an extrasolar planet, a discovery which would secure his future in the fiercely competitive field of astronomy. As he relies opportunistically on the work of a famous astronomer who died before he could complete his project, Avey is aghast to find he must share his office at the Joint Astronomy Centre with the man's son, who is on the same hunt. They become friends despite their competition, but this makes the betrayal, when it comes, particularly bitter.
