Botanist and mechanical engineer Mark Watney is one of the astronauts on NASA's Ares 4 mission to Mars. When a violent dust storm hits, the Hermes crew is forced to abort its mission. During their evacuation, however, Watney is hit by a flying piece of metal and goes offline. The rest of the crew, believing Watney to be dead, leaves Mars and begins the long journey back to Earth.

Isolated and faced with staggering odds against his returning to Earth, Watney makes the decision to survive until the next Mars expedition in nearly four years. This is not a light decision, as he has limited rations and NASA still believes him dead. Every sol poses new challenges: growing potatoes in Martian soil, a transfer of life support to the rovers, establishing communication through the abandoned Pathfinder. Once NASA discovers his survival, they immediately set about trying to figure out how to get their astronaut home. In the end, the plan comes from the least likely of places. It is brilliant and insane, and it could put the Hermes crew’s lives at risk.