The Foundation lies in ruins--destroyed by a mutant mind bent on humanitys annihilation. But its rumored that theres a Second Foundation hidden somewhere at the end of the Galaxy, established as insurance to preserve the knowledge of mankind. Now a desperate race has begun between the survivors of the First Foundation and an alien entity to find this last flicker of humanitys shining past--and future hope. Yet the key to it all might be a fourteen-year-old girl burdened with a terrible secret. Is she the Foundations savior--or its deadliest enemy?