In the tangle of profound change and collective crises that are concentrated in a key moment in Italian history, three characters try to inaugurate a new phase of their lives, as they prepare to confront the terrible “resurgence” that is about to swoop down on the country. Martin Zanka, the author of bestsellers, discovers that he’s tired of writing the kind of books that led to his success, about the alien origins of ancient civilizations. Milena
Cravero, a young anthropologist, pushes her research into the “tribes” of ufologists well beyond the limits she would have liked to set for herself. Vincenzo lives at Thanur, a hesoteric commune where he eventually kicked his heroin habit. When more and more addicts hear about him, and knock at the place's door to seek help, Thanur finds itself under siege.
Between forest rangers, hippy communities, inexplicable phenomena and noir plots, the protagonists’ pathways converge on a mountain in the Lunigiana, attracted by its legends, its mysteries, and the sighting of an extraterrestrial creature, the prelude to that autumn’s “great wave”, when there will be an unprecedented number of “close encounters” with spaceships and their crews.