The main character of "Escape the Morning" is eighteen-year-old Mark Jordan. He runs a mining station with his brother Tom and sister Judy; they inherited the station from their parents, who died in a pit accident. As the one in charge, Mark bears heavy responsibilities for the safety of his brother and sister, as well as for the success of their mining enterprise. He knows that "Emergencies on the Moon have a way of arriving fast and nasty."

This means that he not only has obligations to his siblings, but that he and they have wider obligations to the community, because "like all pioneers, the Lunar colonists take for granted that anyone in distress is to be helped." This is why he unhesitatingly sets off to pick up Achille Kamolondo, the stranded "Minister of Technology of Federated Zaire," who is a couple of hours...