Routine, unclassified data - acquired from an almost-forgotten government project begun years ago - begins to change in unexplainable ways. Normally-predictable sensor signals from a far-off space probe are fluctuating. Nothing that is known to science should be capable of causing these fluctuations - yet the changes are very real. Interstellar spacecraft Venture 1 has been contacted by an alien intelligence - which has now become aware of Earth. The contact is first discovered by a fifteen-year-old high school student doing research for his senior project. Attempting to understand what he's stumbled upon, he enlists the aid of a family friend, a former United States Marine who left the military to become a Jesuit. The priest guides the young man and his family on a nonstop, action-packed race through the streets of Philadelphia - and a maze of global politics - in an effort to remain one step ahead of those who want to suppress what may be the greatest discovery of all time - or the most chilling.