It is the dawn of the twenty-first century, and America is in trouble. Our public schools breed apathy and ignorance. Politics has become the art of the quick fix. But one woman has the vision and money to leverage change. Mariesa Gorley van Huyten, heiress to one of the great American fortunes, founds an educational subsidiary - Mentor Academies - and begins to subcontract public school systems in order to raise a new, less cynical generation. But her clandestine program is much larger, including the founding of a private space program, the eventual construction of an orbital power station, and supporting technological innovation on Earth. Firestar is a chronicle of private enterprise and individual initiative - the story of one woman's quest that becomes the focus for a whole new world of the future. Her program lets teachers strive to teach, hires astronauts who have no government space program to fly for, and provides productive outlets for the idealistic desires of the rich and powerful - at least those who remain sane enough to have such desires in the face of a crumbling America. And it just might work.