When a grad student working on his doctorate accidentally opens a passage into an alternate universe, his mentor is thrilled — until the student's girlfriend decides it's the best terror-weapon she's ever seen.
        In the time it takes to learn that the new discovery has been turned to nefarious purposes, Professor fitzGibbon's house is a pile of rubble and another of her students is dead.
        Complicating things, NSA wants that technology — and they want it badly, and they'll do anything to get it.   They, too, think it's the best weapon they've ever seen.
        The only thing standing in the way of sudden death or lifelong imprisonment is Barbara fitzGibbon's father and a handful of retired U.S. Marine Corps combat veterans.

        What do you do with an entire planet — an entire universe, in fact?   If you let the government — any government — have it...   well, you know what Lord Acton said about that, right?   "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
        Can humans overcome their natural tendency to dominate everyone and everything?   How can it be prevented, and for how long?
        When Barbara fitzGibbon tasks herself with opening up the 'universe next door' for exploration and exploitation, she faces all the challenges of generations of pioneers for a hundred millennia, and she has to deal with them all at once.
        But she doesn't have to deal with them alone or unaided.   Luckily, there's 'Nearside' just on the other side of the nearest gate, and if they're careful it could give them the running start they need.
        All she has to do now is make sure the right mix of immigrants shares the right kind of mindset.   Easier said than done?

        A primitive land, 35 billion acres of it, and it all has to 'work' for the benefit of the inhabitants while steering clear of 'entangling alliances' with the factions beyond the gate in Nearside.
        While primitive, the land is also pristine, and humanity has learned during the past few centuries the value of keeping it so.   Careful, now...   by all means, have yourself a new Industrial Revolution   Just try not to make the same mistakes you did the first time around, pilgrim.
        But Farside must eventually join hands with its neighbors in Nearside and come to an accord with them if the Farsiders are ever to live without the threat of war, invasion, and conquest.   Diplomacy is always and everywhere an indispensable ingredient.

        Preserving Farside means preserving Farside's culture, and preserving Farside's culture means protecting it from contamination.
        At the same time, Farside can't exist without Nearside, and it's Nearside's culture Farside needs protection from.
        Can Farside's embrace of The Golden Rule act to move Nearside's kaleidoscope of cultures to be more like Farside's or will the inevitable commerce between them be the virus that gives Farside a bad case of the Nearside sniffles?
        How much is it worth for Farside to stay true to itself?