Every stand-in dreamed of the starring role-but what actor would risk his life for the opportunity?

About a minute, down-and-out acting professional Lorenzo Smythe is, while usual, inside a bar, taking in away his issues while you’re watching his profession circle the drain. Then a space pilot purchases him a glass or two, and the next matter Smythe knows, he’s shanghaied to Mars. Smythe suddenly finds himself agreeing to the most difficult function of his career: impersonating an important politician who has been kidnapped. Peacefulness using the Martians is at stake, and failure to accomplish the act you could end up interplanetary war.

Smythe knows nothing of the problems concerning free interplanetary trade and equal rights for aliens and cares even less, but the handsome compensation is impossible to refuse. He shortly realizes, however, that he encounters an eternity masquerade if the true politician never shows up.