Abidemi Kumolu and his twenty-nine brothers and sisters have been engineered to tolerate the atmosphere of alien world orbiting Alpha Centauri A; his genetic parents, originally from a scientific survey vessel, have seceded from the United Nations that sent them. Gabriel Galloway, the leader of that survey vessel, plans to use them as the foundation stone for a civilization like Earth has never seen.
Gabriel did not anticipate the arrival of several other starships from Earth, each bearing their own engineered children and claiming allegiance to one of the nation-states that Gabriel had hoped to leave behind. He aims to outcompete the other colonies both militarily and economically, and to have his engineered son Jacob assume his role when Jacob reaches adulthood.
Abidemi becomes romantically involved with Jacob, but, as Gabriel's goals worm their way between them, they become rivals. Both boys grow up to find themselves at the center of interstellar politics, where they must save their siblings from a nuclear holocaust and their own parents' ambition.