The great white north of Alaska is the setting where Steve Kelly a radio talk show host has an encounter of the fourth kind with an alien that proves he is from another world by telling of previous event that has not yet been seen from Earth. Two weeks later when the United States Government witnesses a black hole devouring a star at the exact place and time predicted by the alien they enact a plan to stop the black hole whose destination is Earth. Not wanting to be responsible for creating world chaos the President secretly executes a campaign to discredit Steve while ordering the CIA to simultaneously kidnap 12 of the best scientific minds on our planet. He funds the operation by covertly seducing the Israeli's to invade Lebanon to look for Hezbollah terrorists while they cut into a Saudi Arabian oil pipe line that runs from Northern Saudi Arabia through Lebanon into Turkey. Subsequently the Israeli's announce that they have struck oil and use the money they save from not buying foreign petroleum to finance the operation. Steve Kelly is forced by the FBI to clear his name putting him on a quest to find the location of the alien's planet which he concluded was not very far from Earth. Along the way he falls in love with Ali Abrams a Jewish Northwestern student interning for her masters degree in astrological science with a Doctor Baron who is the head of the Klondike National Observatory. Together the trio out-wits the government locating the alien's base of operations. The alien whose name is Shem befriends the trio answering the question "why would you want to help save our planet and risk exposure"? Believing he is telling the truth Shem tells an incredible story about Noah and the great flood, which he claims, happened on his planet. "With no mountains or high ground and certain annihilation facing their planet the elected Sage (President) decided to preserve their species by reestablishing themselves on Earth." Although the trio fines the story hard to believe they decide to go along because the alien appears to have genuine intentions and they know that the United States government has been disingenuous. Needing Steve's help to solicit the use of the alien's spacecraft to deliver what the government thinks is the black hole solution; they stop harassing Steve and decide to join forces with the trio. The plan is to attack the black hole 450 billion miles from Earth and only the alien's spacecraft could make a timely delivery. The alien goes along with a plan to use nuclear weapons to create enough turbulence to change the direction of the hole but demands that Steve Kelly go along. The government knowing by the alien's own admission that their planet allows no weapons thinks that the alien's maybe using subterfuge in order to get weapons of mass destruction. Along with Steve the government sends a nuclear weapons expert both who have the codes to arm the weapons. If either one thinks that the procurement of the weapons is for ill-founded reasons they were not to arm the weapons and if tortured they were to commit suicide. In the process of getting ready for the trip to the center of the galaxy the government has several meanings with Shem. Each time he develops an architecture that enables him to evade capture.