The surface of Venus is the most hellish place in the solar system, its ground hot enough to melt aluminum, its air pressure high enough to crush spacecraft landers like tin cans, its atmosphere a choking mix of poisonous gases. That’s where the frail youthful Vehicle Humphries must go-or perish trying.

Years before, Van’s older brother perished in the initial attempt to land a man on Venus. Van’s dad has often hated him to be the one to survive. Today, his father offers a ten-billion-dollar prize to the 1st one who lands on Venus and returns his oldest son’s remains. To everyone’s shock, Van takes up the present. But what Truck Humphries will find on Venus changes everything-our knowledge of Venus, of global warming on the planet, and his understanding of who he’s.