The Jackaroo pop in to help humanity after an unfortunate incident with a nuclear bomb in the middle of London, providing shuttle flights through wormholes to a number of gift-worlds where Earth can establish colonies amongst the stars and make the same mistakes and maybe find a few new ones. Littered with the remains of previous alien races who have been beneficiaries of the Jackaroo's slightly mysterious benevolence, ancient artifacts make their way back to earth and cause strange ideas to spread, memes and eidolons inspiring cults and and various types of odd behaviour.

Chloe Miller checks up on what promises to be a harmless breakout and finds two children possessed by an alien ghost. On Mangala, one of the Jackaroo gift-worlds, Vic Gayle investigates a murder that leads him to a web of crime and corruption centering on a distant archaeological site. It looks like humanity's about to find something rather interesting, or that something interesting has found them, but will they be the better or the worse for it?