Beginning with a secret wedding, and with world war looming, three famous astronauts embark on a one to two-year trek to find vital iridium, gold, palladium, and platinum in the Asteroid Belt. Decelerating through Mach-20, a cannonball-sized meteor craters their craft and injures the wife. With no comm gear and unable to return, the husband and maid of honor seek a large asteroid, so they can land and possibly make repairs. Besides their wits, they do have food and water for two years, but nobody on earth can possibly find them, unassisted. It's a mining ship, so they dig to survive deadly solar radiation. And then they discover the wife is with child. Their survival situation gets better and much worse. And much better.