A team of astronauts on the first mission to Mars crashes onto the surface, losing contact with Earth. With no other recourse, and help millions of miles away, the crew is forced to make desperate choices in order to stay alive. Will they be able to survive as the minutes slip away?

As a “free colored” woman, Anna Elizabeth Heegaard is wealthy and owns her own slaves when she begins a love affair with the Danish colony’s governor-general Peter von Scholten. During communal feasts, they discuss social reforms while a slave boy hangs above the table and cools the diners with a feather. And in the shadows, whispers begin of a slave revolt.