A decade later, just when Culley has pretty well convinced himself that he'd hallucinated the whole thing, he meets Qaazi again in a Tokyo railroad station, this time disguised as a young Japanese woman. She informs him that not only are his memories correct, but that they conceived a son in the course of his abduction. She goes on to tell the startled expatriate that she's a dissident who has challenged the 'Alien Raj's' policy of non-interference in 'Native' affairs (unless it happens to suit their own needs, which include exploiting human DNA) and wants to live with him and their son as a loving, human-type family. In so doing, she will force the onset of the long-delayed 'phase two' in the aliens' contact agenda: limited, albeit open contact between themselves and the 'Natives.' But first they must rescue the boy, whom Qaazi has named Adam in honor of the mythical founder of the human race, from an alien 'creche.'

Along the way, they encounter Culley's old nemesis at Graham College, astronomy professor Sidney Levine, as well as a wide-eyed young trance-channel named Sally Linker and a Japanese 'Man in Black,' who works for a race of nasty, insectoid aliens known as the 'Others,' and who does his best to thwart Qaazi's plans. They must also outwit both Qaazi's own people, who are searching high and low for them, and MJ-12, the U.S. Government's super-secret UFO investigating committee, which is chaired by Nobel laureate Dr. Wilma Gibbs, a brilliant African American scientist, who has devoted her life to understanding the nature of the alien presence.