Three children imprisoned for years because of their ancestry, their final release into a world as foreign to them as it would be if they were on another planet; their struggles, failures, and triumphs as they yearn for and finally achieve adulthood, trying to manage the gifts left to them by their progenitors: all of this combines to produce a fast-paced novel encompassing scenes which would be familiar to aficionados of The Time Traveler's Wife, as well as to those who lean toward Star Trek.