Astronaut Earl Jensen is blasted into space on a routine mission, which is sabotaged by the evil Dr. Frubar, a space program bigwig who plans to twist Earl's "accident" into a public relations grist for an outlandishly costly new spacecraft initiative benefiting greedy advertiser cronies. Twenty years later, Earl's orphaned daughter Josie is an accomplished and obsessive astronomer, closely watching the heavens that swallowed her father. When Earl's long-lost ship unexpectedly plummets to earth, followed by a second craft containing bizarre alien creatures, Josie reunites with Earl, and a full scale war ensues that pits the Jensens and their extraterrestrial friends against the Machiavellian Dr. Frubar.