A team from the intergalactic fast food chain Crumb's Crunchy Delights descends on Earth, planning to make human flesh the newest taste sensation. After they wipe out the New Zealand town Kaihoro, the country’s Astro-Investigation and Defense Service (AIaDS) is called in to deal with the problem. Things are complicated due to Giles, an aid worker who comes to Kaihoro the same day to collect change from the residents. He is captured by the aliens, and AIaDS stages a rescue mission that quickly becomes an all-out assault on the aliens’ headquarters.

Alex is intersex. Although he has XY chromosomes, his sex is ambiguous. When Alex was an infant, his mother authorised genital reassignment surgery, and he was thereafter raised female. Now Alex is an adult, and he is consumed by feelings of anger and loss. After meeting other "XY women" and doing a lot of soul-searching, he decides he wants to live as a man.