When all the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, a crisis is declared by the head of this US Air Force's Project Scoop. A group of eminent scientists headed by Dr. Jeremy Stone scramble to some secure laboratory and try to isolate the entire life form whilst ascertaining why two different people from Piedmont - a old alcoholic and also a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists study the life form that is alien unaware it poses a threat at the laboratory, that is equipped with a device made to stop the flow of dangerous biological agents and has mutated. .