Toby Halpert works as an inspector on an international space station, sometime in the near future. Strange, unexplainable events have been happening to other crewmembers who are exploring a strange area of space called “the Highway.” Most notably, a Soviet cosmonaut named Olga Tovyevski disappeared while on an expedition. She returned two years later, in a catatonic state, holding a seashell of a species not known on Earth. Intrigued by the prospect of life forms on another planet, the team sends out another probe to the same area. It also disappears. When it is finally found again, the crew discovers that the cosmonaut inside has killed himself. More expeditions are sent out, and more meet disastrous ends.

One more expedition is sent out, and once again the cosmonaut inside returns dead. An inspection of the body reveals the Frenchman is wearing an iron ring encoded with strange data. When it is examined closely, it appears to be a “Rosetta stone for cancer” (73). This leads the crew to believe that a distant and hyper-intelligent life form is trying to contact them and is ready to share potentially miraculous information and technology. Scores of crewmembers ready themselves to volunteer for expeditions to visit the area, despite the deaths in previous probes.