Eloise Bright, renowned theoretical physicist, finds it odd that a top-secret physics conference will be held at a remote backcountry campsite in Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park. Curiosity overcomes reason, and she agrees to go, not knowing who will attend. When the conference organizer doesn't show, the attending physicists team up to try to find him. One of them takes extraordinary interest in Eloise and, in an aside to her, confesses he is from another galaxy, which she laughs off at the same time wondering what she's gotten herself into. However, the professed extraterrestrial might be the key to finding the conference organizer. Eloise's scientific training is further put to the test as she must come to terms with a hoodoo curse that brings bad luck, with the conference organizer's disappearance, and with her desire to be back at her university teaching job and in the nice, safe world of math equations. Ultimately, she has to decide if she really believes her eyes.