In a futuristic world, humankind has achieved intergalactic travel and has been able to settle on thousands of planets. A young, beautiful girl named Veesey Koosey journeys out on a spaceship to a new planet, along with 30,000 others. In order to make the longer intergalactic journey, Veesey must be frozen. The workers who freeze her ensure that she is able to protect herself and ensure the safe travel of all 30,000 passengers. They laminate a mouse brain, print the personalities of a few people onto it, and load it onto the spaceship with Veesey. 326 years into the ship's journey, Veesey is woken up by a younger man, Trece, and an older man, Talatashar. She learns that the ship's sailor died and the ship woke up Trece and Talatashar to run the ship; the two men woke up Veesey because they wanted company. Repairing the ship takes over a year and in that time, Veesey, Trece, and Talatashar get closer. However, one day, Veesey and Trece learn that Talatashar threw away everyone's psychological guards -- the devices that kept their baser and more violent human instincts at bay. Veesey and Trece become fearful, not knowing what dangerous things could be done to them -- or what they could do to each other. One night, Talatashar ties up Trece, pulls Veesey out of her bed, and says that he is going to hurt her. He wants to commit crimes to her, kill her, and torture her. He claims it is for power and because women are evil and unfeeling, and threatens to slowly torture and kill all 30,000 of the other passengers on the ship after he kills Trece and Veesey. Veesey activates her psychological guard -- a special one that Talatashar did not know about -- to protect herself. Her guard emerges as an artificial personality named Sh'san, who can inflict pain on them and call out other artificial personalities to ensure that Veesey remains safe and the ship stays on course. Sh'san forces Talatashar to give up his sadistic pursuits and sets the ship on track. Talatashar is unable to figure out what kind of entity Sh'san is, but accepts his authority. Talatashar and Trece begin to see Veesey as a daughter and want to protect her. Veesey, Trece, and Talatashar take turns being frozen and running the ship until they arrive at their new planet. At the new planet, the ship is greeted and all passengers are alive. Trece says goodbye to Veesey. Talatashar arranges to meet Veesey again, believing that Sh'san was some entity generated from Veesey's mind, and grateful that Veesey saved him from his destructive tendencies and, consequently, saved the entire ship.