How do you design a system of government from scratch when you've lost faith in government itself?

Carrie Davenport, a renowned constitutional law professor, has the career opportunity of a lifetime. Project Mars, the brainchild of a billionaire tech tycoon, has ambitious plans to establish the first human settlement on Mars. And Project Mars selected her-a Black, queer, publicity-shy professor in North Carolina-to design a system of government for the colony.

Carrie eagerly researches how to craft a suitable constitution for space. But when she is stopped by the police one evening in a case of mistaken identity, the filmed encounter thrusts Carrie into a spotlight she never asked for, putting her at the center of the discourse on race and justice in the US. Suddenly, American democracy doesn't seem like a shining beacon to carry into space. Carrie must decide whether to speak up-against the police violence she endured, the tech-bro culture of Project Mars, and an even deeper underbelly of corruption behind the mission.

Can Carrie regain faith in herself and in society to craft the "government of the future" and prevent the prejudices of Earth from tainting human life beyond?