Elpis and her family are outcasts in their colony homeworld at a time of famine and upheaval. Her father has dared disobey the elders and seek aid offworld. Will Appa return in time to save them all?
 

     "He has promised to return. And he is not a man to let his family down," Adda told us, my little brother and me, in answer to Malhyn’s question.

     Appa will come back to us, won’t he, Adda?

     It had become a ritual for the three of us—the question, the answer--as comforting as the sight of her nails raking one of our last remaining popla stalks, freeing the hard grains, those brown teardrops that were now our only source of nourishment after three years without crops.

     The night before we had feasted on the last of our offworld supplies, five forkfuls each of fermented vegetables and three spoonfuls of sweet fruit from a can, a final treat. We spoke Appa’s name together while the honeyed juices still coated out tongues.

     He had been gone so long. And he had left us behind to be pronounced outcasts.

     His sin, our punishment.