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This story alternates between the point of view of Teri-Mel Murray, an ecoprospector who's approaching adulthood on Mars and seeks to follow in her father's footsteps, and the unnamed psychiatrist who is listening to her story. Several decades earlier, refugees from Earth fled to Mars to escape the domination of One True, a Borg-like supercomputer that interconnects human beings by implants called Resuna on a particular area of their brains. There is a trigger phrase -- let overwrite, let override -- that a human can speak to activate their Resuna.
The first half of the novel is mostly history, leading up to the day when Teri-Mel achieves "full adulthood". Prominent in this part of the novel is the colonists' earlier decision to forego terraforming Mars to suit human life and instead adapt life to suit the Martian environment. It's estimated this can be done in just two to three generations.
Teri-Mel's father, Telemachus Murray, is so impressed with her maturity and so excited by their discovery of a new fissure on Martian soil that he invites her to be his second-in-command of an extended field trip, going to and returning from the Martian equator. Just as they're about to make their return trip, however, the sunThe Sun (also called Sol is the star in our solar system. Planet Earth orbits the Sun. Other bodies that orbit the Sun include other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust. Not all objects passing through the solar system have been orbitally capt rises and, without the atmosphericEarth's atmosphere is the layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It consists of nitrogen (78. 1% by volume) and oxygen (20. 9%), with small amounts of argon (0. 9%), carbon dioxide (variable, but around 0. 035%), protection of Earth, overloads the systems on several exosuits, including Telemachus'.
Teri-Mel organizes and guides the survivors back to shelter in Red Sands City, but it has been overrun by human pawns of One True. She flees and opts to have the portion of her brain containing the Resuna removed -- this involves losing her recent memories, so it's done after she tells the story to her psychiatrist, who's had a Resuna removed twice. The novel ends with them both engaging in ecoprospecting, away from those colonists who have chosen the unity of One True.