Nerber is a contestant on the the Far-Out Show, the first intergalactic reality TV show of his planet Ormelex. He is the first of his kind to secretly visit Earth since he is the only one of the several who traveled here for the purpose to safely reach Earth's surface (although he doesn't know that and the producers want to keep him from learning it). He sets off to carry out a series of prescribed show challenges involving interactions with whatever intelligent life forms he can find. That ends up including the unintended one of surviving being hunted by fear-crazed human vigilantes. Back on Ormelex, the new show's instant popularity causes unexpected problems for the show producers and the politicians who back them since the unruly population seem likely to riot when more episodes are slow to be aired. The on-site producers busy editing together the show episodes on board a spaceship near earth's moon scheme to come out ahead by playing one group at home against the other. They plot the best course to make themselves rich, famous, and powerful while avoiding capture by any Earth forces while also scrambling to deactivate the self-destruct mechanism that is build into their ship lest the authorities at home try to resolve their problems there by blaming an accident far away for the end of the Far-Out program. From the start they are all underestimating Nerber and his agenda at their peril.