Harry Middleton is born in an America staggered by a century of decline, a time of medical and technological marvels beyond the reach of most people in a shattered economy. Pessimism and despair have replaced optimism and hope. A desperate government has bet the future on space, but the lunar and Martian colonies haven't provided the hoped-for salvation. Despite an angry, disillusioned public, the first star mission will soon be launched. Harry is a special child, smart and precocious, his only confidante an embittered grandfather. When the old man dies, Harry is lost until he meets Lorrie. At thirteen, they bond, certain they'll escape to the stars together, but a year later, she disappears, and Harry is desolate. With help from his friend Carlos, Harry begins a quest to find her, but quickly learns how powerless he is. With the police lacking the resources to help, Harry and Carlos must depend on themselves and each other. An unlikely duo, Harry is an academic prodigy while Carlos is a stud athlete. Realizing that school and baseball are their tickets out of the morass they're caught in, they inspire each other to greatness in both. Moving on with his life, Harry has a college sweetheart, but with Lorrie's memory haunting him, the relationship is doomed. He gains celebrity and wealth, but the thing Harry wants most, finding and saving Lorrie from whatever fate took her from him remains beyond his reach. And always, in the background, are the deteriorating state of the country and the star missions...and of course, the Portal. The Portal is both classic hard science fiction and a novel of undying love. If An Affair to Remember, were set a hundred years from now, in an America that spent the twenty-first century squandering its greatness, it might look like The Portal.