Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
The book centers on Joan Goodwin, a fictional astronaut in NASA's Space Shuttle program in the early 1980s, and her ability to juggle family, romance, and the demands of her new job.