Set in the 22nd century, when a battered salvage ship sends out a distress signal, the seasoned crew of the rescue hospital ship Nova-17 responds. What they find is a black hole--that threatens to destroy both ships--and a mysterious survivor whose body quickly mutates into a monstrous and deadly form.

A rich cross-section of urban USA find their lives changed when their fates collide at gunpoint. At the centre of it all are Helen and Warren Harding, an up-scale couple on the brink of divorce, whose awakening in the night by a burglar sets off a catastrophic series of events.