To those who are interested in science, science fiction, space flight, and the future of the human race, no doubt these are demoralizing times in America. But there is still plenty of cause for hope. It's not a matter of if, but when we move out into space. It's as inevitable as was the discovery of the New World--if Columbus's expedition had been called off at the last minute, it's a sure thing that someone else would have done it, five, ten, twenty, or fifty years later. Whether the general public or the politicians want to admit it or not, Earth is getting too small for our civilization. We will move out.

Fourteen short stories tell of futures where the human race has moved out into space, and deal in a variety of ways with the social, psychological, and scientific consequences of the conquest of the stars.