When Kyle Leverson, prematurely retired from the U.S. Army after being injured in combat, and living alone in a remote spot in the mountains of northern Arkansas, goes to investigate on hearing a thud outside his home, he finds, to his shock, that an alien has landed in his garden, after a malfunction in its unreality-drive exploration starship. This is not a War of the Worlds scenario, though. The alien was hurt during its enforced descent to Earth, when its fast-disintegrating lifepod dropped through the canopy of the pine trees on the mountainside and dumped it right beside Kyle's house....