Greg Allenby, almost seventeen, is in line to inherit his family's cheese-making business. He wants nothing to do with it. Bored with his life in Ames, Iowa, he thinks of nothing else except getting out of his hometown and going somewhere with his girlfriend, Jenny Gillis. Anywhere will do. Everything changes with the arrival of three minute visitors. Artan and his wife, Kelindra, and her brother, Farkas, are from the planet of Chisaka, and they have nowhere else to go. Greg allows them to stay, and they prove to be helpful with a number of skills they possess, but soon the secret is out and everyone wants to meet the little people, including the police and the armed forces. Worse, the alien trio is being pursued by a malevolent individual from their home world, and now Greg and Jenny, along with the various lawmakers they meet, have to do everything they can to protect their new friends. But how you can protect yourself against something that you can't even see?