In 2082, humanity was convinced that it is not alone in the universe. Countless alien reconnaissance probes in a glowing web have enveloped the Earth. Having burned up in the atmosphere, they managed to transmit a signal outside the solar system. Two ships, "Theseus" and "Crown of Thorns," are sent to find out who is behind all these signals, and, perhaps, for the first time in the history of mankind, establish contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. One of them flies to the depths of the Kuiper belt, the other, 14 years after the first expedition, to the Sun. But neither knowledge, nor the latest technology, nor cardinal changes in the brain are able to prepare them for how different the inhuman mind can be...