Radio astronomer Zane Ziminski has been listening to cosmic noise in the middle of the night for years. It's his obsession, and the bane of his tough, successful girlfriend Char. All night long, he sits in a lonely station monitoring every frequency, every wavelength, every millimeter of space for signs of life and hearing nothing but silence. At the end of yet another night's search, the delicate sensors are suddenly alive with a loud, clear radio transmission from space, a shockwave. This is what Zane has been waiting for. What the world has been waiting for. Or is it?