America. The 1960s. Ruth loves climbing trees, making a mess and throwing stones. But the thing she loves most is space. The girl is obsessed. She spends her days reading comics about alien invasions, doodling UFOs, watching B-movies about Earth being invaded by creatures from Mars and gazing at the stars through her old, battered telescope. Until one night, Ruth creeps out of bed in the attic room of her rickety old farmhouse to watch the stars and is just dozing off when she spots something blazing across the sky. Something that looks like a flying saucer! Is she dreaming? No! And the flying saucer is on fire. But when the UFO crash-lands in the cornfield, and Ruth rushes to help, she finds a mystery and an adventure, beyond her wildest dreams.