The story is a quick-paced adventure that shifts back and forth among various groups and individuals. The first group, which is given the most attention, is made up of about a dozen people attending an outdoor flying saucer meeting in Southern California. They are in the middle of a discussion when a huge planet, in gaudy shades of purple and gold, suddenly materializes near the Moon in the night sky. This group spends the rest of the book trying to get to Vandenberg Two, home of the Moon Project and the U.S. Space Force’s newest base, which houses a scientist who can help them. The group encounters extreme tides caused by the new object in the sky, earthquakes and fires produced by flexing of the earth’s crust, roving gangs bent on mayhem, and medical emergencies.

The rest of the novel’s characters struggle in smaller groups or alone. One such group is composed of a young woman, a wealthy older man, and his African American assistants. Their story starts at a Florida beach, which they must escape to avoid the huge tides generated by the Wanderer, the name given to the new planet. They head inland, using money and weapons to help them avoid white supremacists and other malcontents.

A couple stranded in New York City by the huge tides spend their time eating, creating poetry, writing a play, and watching the drama unfold from the relative safety of a huge skyscraper. Three dope smokers wander throughout the same city in an attempt to make sense of the odd circumstances. Their lack of understanding and caution proves fatal: A huge tidal influx drowns them as they play in an unoccupied subway car.

The novel also discusses situations elsewhere in the world. A poor Southeast Asian uses the extreme tides to salvage items from ocean wrecks in the South China Sea. A guerrilla fighter attempting to carry on a revolution in Central America sees at first hand how the tidal forces awaken slumbering volcanoes. A solitary sailor crossing the Atlantic Ocean remains unaware of the new planet and the disasters it triggers until he discovers that he is sailing over the streets and buildings of Boston. A Welsh poet tries to survive in England.

A key individual is Paul Hagabolt, a publicist for Project Moon, who struggles to survive like the others until he is taken aboard the Wanderer. He discovers that it is a spaceship. Incredibly varied beings have united to build it as a means of traveling through hyperspace. Near the end of the book, Paul finds out that the beings on the Wanderer are fleeing a cold, bureaucratic, cautious, and tyrannical cosmic government that eventually will reach out to try to include Earth in its stifling culture.

A second planet appears, one sent by the pursuing cosmic government. After a brief fight, the Wanderer disappears, having been damaged by the newcomer. An instant later, the government’s planet also disappears, continuing the chase in hyperspace. Earth is left to recover from its two-day ordeal.