Back in his teenage days, a boy encountered a man with a plan to murder his cheating wife and her lover. Now an old man, he replays the incident in his mind with alternate endings.

When a sexual assault takes place near his Minneapolis home, a young, expectant father’s desire for erotic violence is triggered, leading him to crave inflicting terror on women.

In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

Extraterrestrial visitors promise solutions to America's financial, environmental, and energy problems - in exchange for the country's black citizens. A cultural struggle breaks out to determine whether the trade will be made.