A massive exploration and colonization ship leaves Earth rather early in her space exploration life. The exploration ship has a couple of thousand people for an indefinite voyage to explore the galaxy. Traveling at less then half the speed of light, the book spans many tens of thousands of years, focusing on many generations of people on the ship. It's designed to be completely self sufficient, and since it's separated from earth by thousands of light years, there's is very limited connectivity with Earth. The book explores the evolution and decline of societies in enclosed, information deprived environments.

Part I: Exodus

The book begins with the final construction plans of the Destiny's Approach, along with her launch. The ship voyages at less then half the speed of light out of the solar system and towards Alpha Centauri. This part spends time explaining the backstory and introducing characters and events. As well as the organization of a new society, and the interactions there in.

Part II: Arrival

The Destiny's Approach arrives in the Alpha Centauri system ten years after they left Earth. There, they discover a planet which can sustain human life, but it's very cold and proves to be too volatile for colonization. The transmissions from Earth have stopped because of the vast distances between the ship and the planet. A large ceremony is held when they arrive in the system, and they launch a beacon/ satellite claiming the system for Earth.

As they're passing through the system, they get caught in a meteor shower and the ship is damaged, causing problems throughout the ships, as well as a few deaths. The people on the ship start becoming disillusioned with the command and government of the ship. The repairs are slowly finished and the ship continues its voyage out of the system.

Part III: Devolution

The part begins as multiple revolutionary groups officially split off from the main government, causing many demilitarized zones and widespread civil war throughout the ship. This part focuses on people within each group and how the conflict affects all groups and ages. Control of the ship still rests with the original government, but since the ship is mostly automated, control has broken down into skirmishes over locations on the ship.

Part IV: A New Beginning

The entire ship experiences a devastating plague, killing most of the people on the ship. Every government crumbles, and the survivors band together and reform a solid government. Very slowly, the society strengthens and the population grows. At the end of the part, they pick up an S.O.S signal... in English.

Part V: Return

They follow the signal and it leads them back to Earth. No one on the ship remembers Earth, because the only people who knew about the ship's commission died thousands of years before. Humanity has been extinguished on Earth. The people from the ship resettle the planet, and find out more about their history, including Earth's moon and Mars colonies. They send ships out to their and find people on Mars, but they're completely separated from they're past humanity and have identified themselves as a new race because of prolonged exposure to Mars' different Gravity and atmosphere. The people from the ship begin returning Earth and humanity to it's former existence. In essence, they went full circle and returned to the beginning.