A science fiction novel by
Greg Bear.
Casseia Majumdar is a second-generation Martian settler attending the University of Mars. She gets mixed up with the revolutionary crowd. The people she meets and the events that transpire will haunt her for many years to come, greatly influencing her life and the fate of Mars itself.
One of the best epic sf books ever written, IMHO.
Also, chronologically the last in a series of 3 unrelated books set in the same universe. Previous is Slant, and before that is Moving Mars.