What happens when your astronaut mother orbits the earth and your father rushes around the world on disaster relief missions? You can always join a terrorist animal rights group and chat with your mother via satellite. 20-year-old Helen, who watched a stand-in family take her and her brother?s place when they skipped their mother?s lift-off, is plagued by cynicism and doubt, yet she longs for direction. Her envisioning of, and growth into adult life is chronicled in Catherine Bush?s ultra-contemporary tale Minus Time.