On the penal colony of Hibiscus Station, no positions are as key as the Pomps, who direct the dangerous mining operations to remove highly valuable—and volatile—crystal from the moon's crust.

Young was previously in training to be a Pomp—until a depressive episode, mental break, and a suicide attempt. She doesn’t need the other convicts on her work team to suspect she’s unraveling again, so when she suddenly hallucinates visions of the unstable crystals in the tunnel walls around her—along with the potential danger they hold—she keeps her mouth shut.

And then their newly dug tunnel explodes, killing her crew.

During her reassignment, her new lover, Gyu, makes her an offer: he can pull some strings and help her finish her Pomp training. If Young decides to take the gamble that her new secret visions are accurate, she can prevent further accidents—and pay off the penal debt keeping her from going home.

However, the more she trains, the more her paranoia convinces her that the collapse wasn’t an accident at all, and that everyone—her new crew, the station staff, and even Gyu—are all hiding secrets. If she doesn’t figure out what’s real before her mental health implodes, she might not survive the next “accident.”