Tracing alien radio transmissions received in New York City, Loengard and Sayers suspect the Hive is planning an operation around the American debut of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. At the studio where preparations are underway, they find nothing suspicious. However, after learning the radio operator they're tracking died recently in a mysterious traffic accident, they find a second phone number for another suspect operator. Meanwhile, Bach stumbles onto evidence that the Hive has been rejecting some abductees.

Following the deaths of both President Kennedy and his assassin, Bach realizes that the alien hive has planted a spy inside Majestic - and all the evidence points to his trusted aide, Jim Steele. However, Steele escapes into the Majestic complex after a failed attempt to eject the alien ganglion from his body. Meanwhile, Loengard and Sayers return to John's childhood home in California, where an uneasy reception from John's older brother Ray revives long-standing tensions between them.

Despite tensions between Loengard and Albano, Bach is determined to get a glyph decoder held by Juliet. Realizing that it's just the weapon that could help with a takeover of Majestic, Juliet agrees to let Bach use it to attract an alien ship. As Loengard, Sayers and Juliet work to replicate the crop circles suspected to denote landing sites, the young daughter of a widowed farmer slips into where they are working. And upon taking her home, John and Kim can only hope Monica Gresham hasn't seen too much. Then, as their ruse succeeds in attracting a ship, an attempt to capture it and the crew goes awry. So Bach gives John and Kim time to find a wounded Gray on their own. Seeking refuge at her father's farm, the alien enlists Monica's help by promising her a chance to see her dead mother. Sensing that the Gray is nearby, Kim and John set up surveillance. Finding Monica looking for another critical artifact left behind by the ship, they follow her home to where the Gray is hiding. And thou

Following a disturbing message from the Soviet Union's counterpart to Majestic, Bach assembles a team that includes Loengard, Juliet and Army Major Colin Powell to investigate. While the team discovers most of Aura-Z's personnel are dead, they find a pair of researchers who survived. As Ludmilla and Pavel tell of experiments with prisoners that backfired and of the convicts who are now holding the head of Aura-Z and Juliet's mentor, Colonel Dmitri Mironov, back in the US, Bach enlists astronomer Carl Sagan in an effort to find the Hive's home planet.