Jonas Larkin, a computer designer, teams up with a genius scientist, Hector Rimirez Villa-Ramos, to prove that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago and " created' modern man from aboriginal life. Hector believes that the aliens have been waiting for us to develop to a point where could re-establish contact with them and that ancient man looked toward Sirius, the Dog Star, as a beacon.They both hoped that if a signal were transmitted toward Sirius, the aliens would answer. While preparing for the signal, Jonas and Hector visit Easter Island and Nazca where Hector is convinced that Easter Island served as the aliens' base while here on Earth. They send a signal toward Sirius, but it will take more than seventeen years for the signal to reach the star, and for the reply to come back, Jonas dies in a freak industrial accident. When the answer does come, it does so in a way which no one expects.