An alien ship rests over Drinking water Island. For five years the people of the united states Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a competition of superadvanced aliens on a study mission they will not fully disclose. They are benevolent in lots of ways but match any action of hostility with disproportional wrath. It has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders and a peacefulness that cannot last.

A year following the death of a boy at the hands of an Ynaa, three families end up at the center of the inevitable discord, witnesses and victims to events that will touch everyone and teach an awful lesson.