In the near future the world is starving. There are too many people and not enough farm land. In a desperate move to survive, humankind sends a spaceship to the nearest habitable planet in an attempt to open a wormhole gateway with unproven technology and establish a farming colony. Everything goes horribly wrong. The gateway kills most of the people that try to use it. Only non-living cargo can make the Passage.

The crew is stranded forever but manages to produce some food crops. To salvage the situation a well meaning bureaucrat advocates building advanced robots with artificial intelligence to aid in the food production. But humans have a bad history with AI robots.. Will this time be different?