Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.

Gateway: an artificial spaceport, full of working interstellar ships left behind by the mysterious, vanished Heechee. They are easy to operate, but impossible to control. Some come back with discoveries which make their intrepid pilots rich; others return with their remains barely identifiable.

It is the ultimate game of Russian roulette, but in this resource-starved future there is no shortage of desperate volunteers.