Steve, a school teacher in Salisbury, has a few problems. For one thing, he can't just seem to handle his love life; for another, he suffers panic attacks whenever confronted by sheer drops, bridges, or the prospect of air travel. He consults a hypnotherapist, but she only makes things worse when he "remembers" being abducted by aliens. Although he doesn't really believe his recovered "memories," Steve begins attending meetings of Alien Abductees Anonymous (AlAbAn). There he begins seeing a pattern in the stories told, to which his own experience might provide a key. While his love life continues to deteriorate, Steve grapples with questions of where or when the alien abductors might originate, what their activities might portend for the future of the human race, Earth, and the entire universe, and what relevance such issues might have to his personal difficulties.