In a futuristic, interplanetary empire where most people are clones of each other, a group of three people—a girl who is the Empress's clone, her childhood friend who loves her, and her servant whom she adores—plot treason against the Empress.

In the near future, a young mother leaves behind a book for her daughter before she embarks on her space journey to the outer solar system in an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial creatures. Sections from her book are interspersed with her husband's verbal recollections of their love story, which he addresses to their young daughter.

When four members of a spacecraft finally land on a distant planet, they fall victim to terrible and inexplicable pain around their ears.

A space traveler visiting Earth is subjected to all the dark experiences of being human and eventually loses hold of his/her own identity.

A scientist collecting samples on Titan finds the expedition to be beyond her wildest dreams—and her darkest nightmares—when she connects with disembodied alien life. Their strange communications take on new urgency when both their lives are at risk.