A spacecraft lands by a small town, and the town’s population disappears. Years later, a woman leaves her daughter, off with her ex-husband, Charles Bigelow, to attend the funeral of her mother, back in her hometown of Centreville. When she doesn’t return, Charles drive to Centerville to look for her, but when he arrives, he finds the town’s people acting odd. After fending off an attack, he returns to New York, and finds the story’s been reported; in a supermarket tabloid. After he meets the pepper’s editor, Betty Walker, (and after she’s been attacked, the pair team up, with Charles hoping to rescue his wife from the extraterrestrial beings.