Long after the human race has disappeared, an archeocaster tries to explain the meaning of a footprint on the moon. She is censured. A spaceship full of the Krenn species spends thousands of years voyaging to the moon, in the hopes of reaching enlightenment. They crash land at the site of the human footprint, and several hundred survive. But no one reaches enlightenment, and their species dies out in a civil war. Another half million years go by, and a broccoli stalk named Seela, the prince of the Vegetable World, learns about the footprint from his loyal florets. He eats them all in order to experience their memories, then he journeys to the moon himself. He eats the corpses of the Krenn and suffers a fatal allergic reaction. After Seela's death, the Vegetable World falls into anarchy. Years go by. A gastroforensiologist of the Trindle species tells the story of Seela's death, prompting scientists to journey to the moon themselves. They don't recognize the footprint, but they confirm the details of Seela's death and record it as a footnote in a scientific article. Millions of years go by. There's a great machine at the heart of the galaxy that dispatches a library protocol to seek out the mysterious footprint. But budget constraints lead to the library protocol being decommissioned. More years pass. The great machine is audited, and the location of the library protocol is flagged as potentially fraudulent, leading to fantastical tales that get passed down through the generations. On the moon, a group of proto-godlings prepare to transition into gods, with the help of their tutor. They stand on the surface of the moon, trying to make sense of the footprint. The tutor tells them that long ago, an intelligent species discovered a way to leave their planet, and the moon was where they paused before jumping off.