A flying saucer hovers over Bruce Forbes' hotel. John tells Andrew to stop creating illusions of flying saucers as the newspapers have started reporting the story. Elizabeth and Timus are negotiating with a Sorson representative to try to stop a war between them and the Thargons. The Sorson refused to stop the war. Tim spotted some Sorson space battleships near the Moon, he thought they were carrying out reconnaissance. Elizabeth contacted the Tomorrow People on Earth. She told them that the Galactic Federation was powerless to stop the Sorsons and Thargons entering Earth's closed space. The Sorsons landed on the moon and started to build a base. The President of the United States of America was shown some pictures of the Sorson battleships and the base. He decided to launch a space shuttle to investigate, and called it Operation Howdy Neighbor. Tim then detected some Thargon space ships arriving. John and Mike decided to jaunt up to try to stop any fighting. Before they got there the battle started, with the American space shuttle in the middle. John and Mike jaunted to the shuttle to try to rescue the crew. John and Mike gave the crew matter transporter bands and they left just before the shuttle was destroyed. John and Mike returned to the battle to try to stop the fighting. Mike jaunted to the Thargon spaceship and told them they must leave the area. John jaunted to the Sorson spaceship. The Sorsons refused to leave the solar system as they wanted to fortify the area to protect it from invasion by the Thargons. The Sorsons told John that they were going to destroy the Thargon ship that Mike was on. John contacted Mike telepathically and told him to leave. Mike told the Thargon captain he they were about to be attacked, but the Thargon ship had been damaged and could not leave or protect itself. The Thargon captain put a holding beam around Mike to stop him leaving, as he thought that the Sorson would not attack with a Federation representative on board. Mike contacted John and told him he was being held captive. The Sorsons refused to stop the attack.

The Sorsons fired and destroyed the Thargons' reactor, leaving them defenceless. The Thargon captain released Mike. John jaunted over and they both left the ship just before it was destroyed by another shot. The American shuttle crew had been matter transported back to their base. One of them then had a meeting with the President, and told them he was rescued by the Tomorrow People and about the battle between the Thargons and the Sorsons. The Sorsons started a reconnaissance of the Earth. Elizabeth contacted the Tomorrow People and told them that the Federation was not planing to do anything to stop the Sorsons landing, she decided to return to Earth. Tim had detected the Sorson command ship arriving. John and Elizabeth tried to persuade General Vishishnu to cancel the landing on Earth, but he refused. Several Sorson ships entered the atmosphere and were spotted over the major cities of the world. One of the ships landed near the White House. The President met the Sorson representative. The Sorson told him that the Earth must defend itself, and they will give them weapon technology to help. The President asked about the Tomorrow People and the Galactic Federation, the Sorson told them they were not important and gave him a Barluminite Ray Gun that would put them out of action without harming them. Another Sorson took Evans on board the spaceship to show him how to operate it. John and Elizabeth jaunted to the Galactic Trig into a closed session discussing the Sorson landing on Earth. The committee decided not to take any action, but to set up a special committee to investigate the affect the Sorsons will have on Human culture. John became very annoyed and told them what he thought. The chairman ruled that John is in contempt and ordered he be arrested, sent to the Proctor Detention Centre and his telepathic abilities removed. Mike and Hsui Tai decided they should meet with the American President. They jaunted to him office. The President was very hostile accusing them of working for an alien power and withholding advanced technology, he took the Barluminite Ray Gun from his draw and shot Mike.

The President shot Hsui Tai and ordered that Mike and Hsui Tai be locked up. Tim detected that Mike and Hsui Tai had been affected by Barlumin, Andrew decided to try to find them and to take two matter transporters to help them escape. The Sorson General told the American President that the Human pilots were learning quickly, and they would soon have 50 pilots to defend the solar system. Andrew jaunted to the Oval Office and stunned the Sorson General. The President fired the Barluminite Ray Gun at Andrew, he was taken to the cells where Mike and Hsui Tai were being held. He had ducked when the President fired and had not been hit. He gave the matter transporting bands to Mike and Hsui Tai, they then returned to the Lab. Tim told Mike and Hsui Tai that John was being held on the Trig. Andrew suggested that they threaten the Trig with a Sorson spaceship. Mike, Hsui Tai and Andrew jaunted to one of the Sorson spaceships on loan to the Americans. Morgan Evans boarded the ship. They asked him to help rescue John. Evans agreed an launched the ship. When they arrived at the Trig they were contacted by one of the Trig artificial intelligences. It refused to release John until his case had been heard. Evans fired at the Trig destroying part of it. The Chaircreature released John, he and Elizabeth jaunted back to the Lab. Tim had been instructed by the Federation not to communicate with them, but he defied them. The Federation had also suspended the Tomorrow People from membership. When Tim told John and Elizabeth what had happened they jaunted to the spaceship. The Sorson General went the see the President, he was very annoyed that Evans had taken a ship and destroyed other Sorson ships. He told the President that they were leaving the Earth and taking all the ships and weapons, and that a Thargon fleet was heading for Earth.

John and Elizabeth jaunted to the Thargon flagship to try to persuade the Thargons to leave the Earth alone. The Thargon General told them that his orders were to make sure all the planets in the solar system were unable to support Sorson life, or any life. John and Elizabeth persuaded the General not to destroy the Earth. He said he would visit the Earth to confirm the Sorsons had left. The American deep space radar picked up the Thargon fleet approaching, the President ordered nuclear weapons to be prepared. John and Elizabeth jaunted to the Oval Office and tried to persuade the President to take no action, so the Thargons would leave, he refused. John and Elizabeth jaunted back to the Lab where Timus was waiting. He wanted them to return to the Trig to defend themselves in a hearing that might reinstate them in the Federation. They said they could not leave while the Thargons were attacking. The radar detected one of the Thargon ships leaving orbit and entering the atmosphere, the President ordered the missiles launched. The missiles hit the ship and destroyed it. The Thargons prepared to attack. Evans, on the stolen Sorson ship, prepared to attack the Thargons. He told the Tomorrow People to leave. Andrew suggested that they use their ability to generate illusions to make the Thargons think that there is a large fleet of ships attacking them. Evans flew the ship through the Thargon fleet to draw them away from Earth. The ship was hit and disabled. The Tomorrow People created the fake Sorson ships and drew the Thargon attack. John and Mike jaunted to the Thargon flagship. The Thargon General ignored their pleas to stop. The other Tomorrow People could not keep the illusions going and the fake ships disappeared. John and Mike used their stun guns to knock out all the crew on the bridge of the Thargon ship. John programmed the flight computers on the ship to split the fleet in two and send them in opposite directions, Mike then destroyed the controls. The Tomorrow People jaunted to the Galactic Trig. Timus told them that they had just missed an important meeting. The committee said that the Federation had become too bureaucratic and out of touch, everything was to be changed, laws were to be enforced, closed worlds to be protected. The Tomorrow People were re-admitted to a new Galactic Federation.