Thanks to the Manuscript Academy's classes, I've come to a better understanding of what a synopsis should be.
I used to confuse a summary or pitch with a synopsis. I'm certain my ignorance cost me some queries. Ouch.
A query letter should contain a short summary or pitch, which reads more like a book jacket. No spoilers, just the highlights, enticing a reader's interest.
A synopsis, on the other hand, is a dry, very un-pitchy recital of the plot with all the spoilers. Sure, it can carry the writer's tone and style, but the agent needs to know the sum total of what they may be trying to sell, in advance. That's the point of the synopsis.
Agents need to read synopses to ensure, as one agent put it, that in the middle of the book, aliens don't land.
Wait, do aliens land in the middle of my books?
A little.
Oh, but it is sci-fi. And Koyper is actually a human. Okay. I might be safe. Phew.
Seriously, I think the whole aliens-landing-in the-middle is a good modern metaphor for avoiding the dreaded deus ex machina, or God in the Machine. No one enjoys watching a God jumping in and waving a wand and solving problems the easy way. No one enjoys plot twists that are not credible.
Everyone says that writing synopsis is no fun. It's dry. It's full of spoilers. It's not pitchy. If you are writing a synopsis, know that you are not alone in having these feelings.
It helped for me to hear this. I felt less alone. I powered through it and am so glad I did! Now I have a good overview of my trilogy. It feels good!
Oh, I did a long and a short version of my book 1 synopsis, too. Here is the long version.
In case you didn't read it already, THESE ARE FULL OF SPOILERS.
Notice that in the second and third synopses, I feel compelled to bring readers up to speed and repeat myself. I hate repeating myself, but hate causing confusion even more. This is done in case someone wishes to skip reading 1 and go on to 2 or 3. I'm not sure what's standard for synopses for works in a series so I opted for clarity.
One problem I have is that I can not tell whether book 1 is standalone. I tried my damnedest to make it that way, emotionally, for the top 4 characters, but hey, their home is still at risk, even though everyone's all upbeat about saving it at the end. I'm too inside my work to tell. Of course I hope it is standalone, but I am often wrong.
If you have comments, I would love to hear them! I still feel like I have a lot to learn.
Book 1: The Time Bomb From Outer Space, complete at 119,000 words
On a stormy Lake Superior in 1975, the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter appear doomed, but encounter a spaceship. The spaceship’s sole occupant is a man from a secret space Colony who seems to want to rescue the crew, but a wave slams his spaceship and the freighter. All are lost. The damaged spaceship autopilots to one of the Colony’s recovery sites before recycling itself into small blue shards. All that’s left is the spaceship’s sentient power generator, 1G-O. IG-O washes ashore on a deserted beach of Door County, Wisconsin, a popular tourist destination. With its language interface severed, 1G-O can only display alien messages using its display panel.
1G-O is discovered by Mr. Wafflequisp, a poor, widowed dairy farmer. Wafflequisp assumes it’s Soviet. Wafflequisp has been despondent over his delinquent son Stew, who is bullying young Pascal, Wafflequisp’s farmhand’s son. Distrusting others and with nothing to lose, Wafflequisp covertly takes 1G-O and some of the blue shards to his workshop to see what they do.
Thirty-eight years later, Wafflequisp’s son Stew owns a spectacularly successful tourist trap dairy farm. 1G-O, hidden in a locked outbuilding, has saved the farm a fortune, powering everything. Stew believes his late father’s warning that dangerous Russian spies would kill to get their miraculous machine back. Only Pascal, Stew’s top farmhand, shares Stew’s secret. Pascal still endures Stew’s bullying. Pascal has been given the blue shards. Unlike the generator, they appear useless.
1G-O doesn’t understand what it’s been powering, but likes being useful. But 1G-O worries. It needs maintenance. For the first time, it’s failing, and the farm suffers random blackouts. Stew and Pascal, its two captors, can’t understand its alien warnings. 1G-0 doesn’t want to explode. It sends a last-ditch distress call through space to the Colony. The Colony responds, sending the son of the pilot of the ill-fated spaceship to the rescue. Koyper, a master of his thoughts and emotions, pilots his spaceship as fast as he can to Earth. Despite the stakes of his quest to find and repair his father’s aging generator, Koyper wistfully anticipates more bioprospecting in his favorite woods, recalling a distinctive tree root and hidden meteorite there.
Stew ropes Pascal into masking the generator’s alarms so he can pitch its confidential sale to energy CEO Billy Sinclair. The shady CEO fakes admiration for dim-witted Stew while scheming to steal 1G-O. Stew grows ill, disregarding clues that a neighboring factory farm’s toxic runoff is the cause. Envying his neighbor’s apparent success, Stew craves Billy’s payment to convert his farm into another factory farm.
Pascal dreams of a life partnered with Chicago-based vegan baker Luis, but can’t leave his treasured cows and fellow laborers in Stew’s irresponsible hands. Since Pascal is the only person who knows Stew’s secret, he knows that after Stew sells the generator, Stew will fire him. Impulsively, Pascal shows the generator one of the blue shards. Scanning the shard unlocks 1G-O’s subroutines. 1G-O then shows Pascal a warning animation of alien creatures running in terror from an explosion. Pascal doesn’t understand the terrifying images, but guesses 1G-O is more than it seems. Pascal resolves to understand 1G-O’s messages before Stew sells it and fires him.
Meanwhile, other than being a failed astronaut, engineer Jim Morgen is like most folks and doesn’t know about the Colony. The secret space station where humans coexist peaceably with benevolent aliens has orbited at the outer fringes of the solar system for millennia. Jim has no clue that in two days, without intervention, the Colony’s missing 1G-O will unintentionally vaporize him and all the tourists crowding the picturesque shores of his Door County, home.
Jim has three problems:
First, he wants to help his disabled brother. Andy is an improvisational genius who loves entertaining others while wearing—or perhaps hiding in—costumes. But when Andy gets scared, he compulsively echoes people. When Jim pushes Andy to assert himself, Andy involuntarily mimics a cafe server he’s attracted to. She’s hurt, mistakenly thinking Andy’s mocking her. Proof that Door County’s a small community, Pascal witnesses this and lectures Jim and Andy against mean pranks before they can explain themselves. Then, while doing yard work for Stew, Andy compulsively echoes an angry Stew. Stew fires Andy. Andy’s response to these crises is to binge drink, worrying Jim further.
Second, Jim wants to ask the new librarian on a date. But Molly is not who Jim thinks she is. A PhD candidate in electrochemistry, Molly is away from her Madison-based lab because her advisor insisted she take time to finish her thesis on her carbon-sequestering invention. Molly’s attracted to Jim, but torn. Wary of romantic distractions, she avoids telling Jim that she’s actually a scientist, took the library temp job on a whim and is leaving town soon. Molly confides in her best friend Sue about “library guy”. Molly and Sue both fail to realize that Molly’s unnamed “library guy” is Sue’s husband’s best friend.
Third, Jim’s depression arising from his not becoming an astronaut has finally lifted, and he wants to share with others the tool that helped him change his perspective: meditation. However, best friend Mark is not interested in Jim’s mindfulness tips. Mark’s worried about saving his failing independent bookstore and suffers zombie-themed nightmares. Mark and his tech-savvy wife Sue long for children but hold off, overwhelmed with saving their bookstore.
Then, while meditating, Jim has an extraordinary vision where he’s leading Andy and Mark in a rapturous meditation hike. His vision highlights the nearby state park where Jim’s heard rumors of strange lights in the sky. Jim’s vision shows him a strangely shaped tree root and an odd, black rock there. Jim doesn’t know it’s Koyper’s intended landing site, but feels a strange urgency to reconstruct his vision there.
Jim arm-twists Mark and Andy into a sunset meditation hike in the state park. Jim’s on a high, having promised Molly—who has resolved to reveal to him who she really is—that he will see her the following morning. But deep in the woods, the trio are terrified by a spaceship landing. Koyper introduces himself as human and divulges some information about his secret space Colony home. He explains his Colony just received an emergency signal from a long-lost spaceship power generator that is about to explode.
Koyper recruits Jim, Andy, and Mark for his mission to find and disable the generator before it blows up their peninsula in two days. Koyper requests they keep their mission secret, noting no one would believe them, anyway. Jim confides to Koyper that a vision led him to meet him. Koyper has no explanation but is intrigued, calling it a positive sign.
Jim realizes that in order to save Molly and countless others, he must break his promise to see her while keeping his mission a secret from her. Koyper’s mysterious calming influence on Andy gives Jim hope that Andy’s disability is curable, not through Jim’s intellectual lecturing, but through a deeper change of Andy’s own heart. And in counseling Mark on managing the terror of their new crisis, Koyper plants a seed for how Mark might revive his bookstore business.
Jim, who keeps lecturing his companions on mindfulness, finds Koyper’s mastery of mindfulness surprisingly upsetting. When Koyper insists they pause to relish Earth’s wilderness with with little time left to prevent millions of lives from being lost, Jim grows alarmed. Jim resolves to trust Koyper. With the spaceman as their guide, united by new hope, Jim, Mark, and Andy begin their quest to find and rescue 1G-O .
Book 2: The Clue in the Cheese Curds, currently 116,000 words. I want to tighten this and add and more of 1G-O's POV.
Engineer Jim Morgen meant well. He only wanted to share the benefits of meditation with his brother Andy and best buddy Mark by leading them on a mindfulness walk in the woods. They didn’t expect to find a spaceship. Its sole pilot, Koyper, is one of many humans that coexist peacefully with aliens on a secret space Colony. Koyper recruits the three hikers for help. They must stop their home, the popular tourist resort of Door County, Wisconsin, from getting vaporized in two days.
Jim, Andy and Mark make a flawed team.
Although meditation lifted Jim from a depression suffered by his failure to become an astronaut, his preaching about the benefits of mindfulness puts people off.
Andy’s a genius at impersonation, but he’s disabled. His compulsion to mimic people when scared keeps getting him into trouble, and his drinking isn’t helping.
Mark suffers nightmares over his failing indie bookstore. Now, all Mark’s post-apocalyptic nightmares are coming true.
Koyper needs their help to find a sentient spaceship power generator that went missing after its 1975 encounter with the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald freighter. Koyper’s space Colony can’t imagine how their generator is being used, but after finally receiving its distress call, they know it’s on the peninsula. Without maintenance, it will explode, killing millions of people.
Koyper and his companions don’t know that thirty-eight years ago, 1G-O the generator was covertly retrieved from Lake Michigan by Stewart Wafflequisp, a poor, widowed dairy farmer. With no understanding of what he assumed was a lost Soviet device, he lifted himself from poverty by rigging it up to power his farm.
Wafflequisp’s overbearing son Stew is now furious. His late father’s machine once provided unlimited power to his now-wealthy tourist trap dairy. Now, it’s failing. The generator keeps sounding alarms, causing blackouts. Stew keeps it hidden on the outskirts of his farm, mistakenly believing that dangerous Russian spies want it back.
The only other person who shares Stew’s secret is his farm’s kindhearted manager, Pascal. Revered by his fellow farmworkers, Pascal has weathered a lifetime of bullying from Stew. Stew gets Pascal to mask the generator’s failures. Stew then pitches its confidential sale to shady energy CEO Billy Sinclair.
Billy’s spy confirms Stew’s generator provides unlimited power. Billy plans to steal it, and feigns friendship with dim-witted Stew. Meanwhile, Stew grows dangerously ill, ignoring clues his neighbor’s factory farm’s toxic runoff is the cause. Envying his neighbor’s apparent success, Stew craves funds from the generator sale in order to convert his farm into another factory farm.
Pascal is stuck. He dreams of living with his boyfriend, Chicago-based vegan baker Luis, but can’t leave his cows and farmworkers in Stew’s unreliable hands. Since Pascal is the only person who shares Stew’s secret, he knows that after Stew sells the generator, Stew will fire him.
Using its damaged interface, 1G-O keeps warning Pascal that it will explode. Pascal doesn’t understand, but resolves to decrypt its messages before it’s sold and he is fired.
Jim, Mark, and Andy are panicking. Agonizing over how to initiate a peninsula-wide evacuation without sounding crazy, Mark splits off for his bookstore where his wife Sue expects him to oversee a bestselling author’s event.
Koyper has a detector which can sense alien technology, like the generator, if it’s nearby. Jim, Andy and Koyper drive to the tip of Door County, then work their way southward. Engineer Jim grills Koyper about how his alien technology works, imagining it might save humanity. Koyper explains the universe’s highest technology is not distant nor alien but found in life on Earth. Koyper’s Colony’s survival depends on technology gleaned from living cells.
Koyper detects something past Green Bay’s shores. They rent a boat and sail to the signal. Jim dives, retrieving only an alien “memento” ball holding images of young Koyper. Koyper recognizes his father’s keepsake. Koyper reveals the lost generator belonged to his father, who died when his spaceship crashed while he was trying to rescue the Fitzgerald’s crew. Jim grasps that even his romanticized alien technology can fail.
Prior to discovering Koyper, Jim had promised the new librarian, who he has a crush on, that he would see her that day. But Molly is not who Jim thinks she is. A PhD candidate in electrochemistry, Molly’s taking time away from her Madison-based lab to finish her thesis on her carbon-sequestering bionic leaf, a project that’s stalled by technical hurdles. Molly likes Jim, but is wary of getting hurt. She’s avoided telling Jim that she’s taken the library temp job on a whim, that she’s actually a scientist and leaving town soon. Molly confides to best friend Sue about “library guy”. They fail to realize that Molly’s unnamed “library guy” is Sue’s husband Mark’s best friend Jim.
With Sue’s prodding, Molly has decided to reveal to “library guy” who she is. Molly can’t wait. She’s excited about his promise to see her at the library that day. When Jim fails to appear, she grows cynical about him. She’s further upset that Josh, a postdoc with questionable integrity, has wormed his way onto her project in Madison. Then Molly has a revelation while watching bird behavior about reviving her stalled project.
Sue is unnerved. Her husband Mark insists, without explanation, that they flee Door County with their cat. Worried for his mental health, she tearfully confides in Molly. Molly and Sue work out that “Library Guy” is Mark’s best friend Jim. More concerning, they realize both Mark and Jim are acting strangely. They conclude something happened to both men in the woods the night before.
Jim, Andy, and Koyper stop at Jim’s house. Hungover and terrified, Andy grow nauseous. Koyper gives Andy Jim’s herbal tea, directing Andy’s focus to its flavor. Something clicks. Andy feels better. Koyper plants in Andy’s head the hopeful notion of relaxing with tea instead of beer. Koyper also replicates a pennywhistle and gifts it to Andy with instructions to play the “true notes of his heart”. As Andy practices, he gains courage expressing himself.
To Jim’s horror, Koyper cheerfully insists they have time to use his kitchen to cook and enjoy an elaborate dinner. Jim’s anxiety soars. While prepping food, Koyper instructs Jim to tune into his senses, explaining this exercise may help them find the generator.
The next day, they continue their search on the road. Andy also searches for a barista he inadvertently offended with his echoing, wishing to apologize to her before it’s too late. Concerned, Koyper instructs Andy to say “I love you” to himself whenever he sees his own reflection, declaring this will help. Feeling silly, Andy begins practicing this.
Koyper insists they stop for breakfast. They encounter Stew, who weakly triggers Koyper’s detector. Koyper dismisses this, mistakenly assuming it’s a false positive.
Stopping at the Piggly Wiggly grocery for supplies, Koyper’s detector is again triggered by a package of cheese curds. He determines the curds have unusual calcium isotopes that must have been created on exposure to the generator’s energy field. Elated, Jim, Andy and Koyper decide to search for more clues by driving to the cheese factory where the curds originated.
On the way, Koyper sees go-carts and insists they ride them for fun. Jim unhappily relents, but melts down when Koyper insists on playing mini golf afterwards. Koyper encourages Jim to trust him and enjoy the moment.
Then, Koyper disappears. All hope is lost. Jim and Andy search for the missing spaceman. Just before they decide to call in a bomb threat to start a county-wide evacuation, knowing their story will not be believed, Koyper appears, deeply apologetic. He’d stepped onto the Door County Trolley, not understanding the driver wouldn’t drive him back on demand. Koyper tried communicating using Jim’s phone, but Jim’s phone always receives messages at a significant delay. The crudeness of Earth technology shocks the contrite Koyper.
Mark knows he can’t explain the crisis to his wife. Sue’s already concerned the dystopian sci-fi Mark loves has damaged his mental health. Promising he will explain, later, Mark convinces her to trust him. They flee to Chicago with their beloved cat. Mark hatches a plan. If he doesn’t receive good news from Jim that evening, he will covertly call in a bomb threat in the hopes of starting an evacuation. Realizing he can’t keep lying to Sue, he resolves to find a way to tell her everything.
Meanwhile, over drinks, Billy’s two sexy female sidekicks drug Stew. Under the influence, Stew signs Billy’s contract. The generator now belongs to Billy, who plans to take it to Chicago for analysis. Billy and his two henchwomen leave Stew on the floor of the men’s room of the bar, making their way to the farm to grab the generator. Before Stew loses consciousness, he manages to phone Pascal to warn him that Billy is coming to take the generator away.
Back on the road, Koyper begs Jim to stop again. Koyper wants to see his first Earth library. It’s just before closing and Molly’s convinced Jim’s untrustworthy. Jim then surprises her, appearing agitated and introducing Koyper as a friend. Molly thinks Koyper is uneducated until he sees her thesis and suggests she use a better cathode. Koyper’s knowledge of physics amazes her. She can’t wait to try Koyper’s suggestions on her invention.
However, Molly gets spooked by Jim’s agitation. She overhears Jim begging Koyper to let her “come with them”. When Koyper says he can’t, Jim appears crestfallen. Jim tearfully kisses her goodbye. She’s left confused, but elated. Clearly, he cares for her.
Jim can’t tell Molly that her life is in danger and he anguishes over leaving her. He's determined to save her. Jim, Andy, and Koyper continue driving to the cheese factory to seek clues to the location of the generator.
Book 3 and the conclusion: Mindful Approaches to Everything Possibly Exploding
The draft is complete 90,000 words, but I want to tighten this and add and more of Molly's and 1G-O's POV.
Engineer Jim Morgen meant well. He only wanted to share the benefits of meditation with his brother Andy and best buddy Mark by leading them on a mindfulness walk in the woods. They didn’t expect to find a spaceship. Its sole pilot, Koyper, is one of many humans that coexist peacefully with aliens on a secret space Colony. Koyper has asked the three hikers for help on his mission. They must stop their home, the popular tourist resort of Door County, Wisconsin, from getting vaporized in two days.
Jim, Mark, and Andy make a flawed team.
Meditation lifted Jim from a depression suffered by his failure to become an astronaut. However, Jim’s preaching about the benefits of mindfulness puts people off.
Mark suffers nightmares over his failing indie bookstore. Now, all Mark’s post-apocalyptic nightmares are coming true.
Andy’s a genius at impersonation, but he’s disabled. His compulsion to mimic people when scared keeps getting him into trouble. Andy’s drinking isn’t helping, but Koyper has been teaching Andy how to love himself, relax, and consider herbal tea as an alternative to beer. Koyper has given Andy a pennywhistle, instructing him to play “the true notes of his heart”. Wearing costumes comforts Andy. He thinks switching from a clown to a cow costume will boost his floundering career as an entertainer, and is traveling with his cow outfit.
Koyper needs their help. In 1975, Koyper’s father tried rescuing the crew of the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald freighter. His spaceship crashed and the spaceship’s sentient power generator, 1G-O, has been missing ever since. Koyper’s Colony can’t imagine how their generator is being used, but after finally receiving its distress call, they know it’s on the peninsula. Without maintenance, 1G-O will explode soon, killing millions of people.
After 24 hours of searching, Koyper and his team have stumbled on a clue in the Piggly Wiggly. A package of cheese curds has, according to Koyper’s detector, calcium isotopes that could only have been created on exposure to the generator’s energy field.
Book 3 begins as Jim, Koyper and Andy drive to the cheese factory that made the curds to search for more clues.
Mark has convinced his wife Sue, who fears for his sanity, to abandon their bookstore. Mark and Sue are fleeing Door County, driving to Chicago with their beloved cat Albireo, a cat that has one blue eye and one gold eye. Mark plans to call in a bomb threat in the hopes of starting a county-wide evacuation if he doesn’t hear from Jim. Realizing he can’t keep lying to Sue, Mark resolves to tell her everything, somehow.
Jim calls Mark, explaining they are heading to the cheese factory, tracking clues. Mark postpones calling in the bomb threat.
By evening, Jim, Andy and Koyper find the cheese factory deserted and locked. Koyper’s instruments reveal they have only a couple hours before 1G-O explodes. Koyper uses his alien 3D printer, which is disguised as an iPad, to print a key after scanning the lock. He ignores his printer’s warning that it’s running low on carbon atoms.
Leaving a hungover Andy in the car to sleep, Jim and Koyper break into the factory. Koyper sadly declares the generator isn’t there; the signal is too weak.
Andy wakes in time to see a night shift employee enter the factory. Locked out of the factory, Andy plays his pennywhistle, warning Koyper and Jim.
Alerted, Koyper uses his fake iPad to project images of Jim and himself as skeletons, scaring the employee off the property. They scan office files and learn the curds were made from milk from Wafflequisp’s Dairy. Koyper and Jim run back to the car and Andy. They race to the Wafflequisp farm.
Koyper and his companions don’t know that thirty-eight years ago, 1G-O the generator was covertly retrieved from Lake Michigan by Mr. Wafflequisp, a poor, widowed dairy farmer. With no understanding of what Wafflequisp assumed was a lost Soviet device, he lifted himself from poverty by rigging it up to power his farm.
Wafflequisp’s overbearing son Stew is now furious. His late father’s magical machine once provided unlimited power to his now-wealthy tourist trap dairy. Now, it’s failing. The generator keeps sounding alarms, causing blackouts. Stew keeps it hidden on the outskirts of his farm, mistakenly believing that dangerous Russian spies want it back. Stew has masked the generator’s malfunctioning and pitched its confidential sale to shady energy CEO Billy Sinclair.
Sharing Stew’s secret is his farm’s kindhearted manager, Pascal. Revered by his fellow farmworkers, Pascal has weathered a lifetime of bullying from Stew. Pascal dreams of living with his boyfriend, Chicago-based vegan baker Luis, but can’t leave his cows and farmworkers in Stew’s unreliable hands. Pascal is the only other person who knows about Stew’s mysterious generator, and keeps his job by staying quiet about it. Pascal knows that as soon as Stew sells the generator, Stew can’t wait to fire him.
Using its damaged interface, 1G-O keeps warning Pascal that it will explode. Pascal doesn’t understand, but resolves to decrypt its messages before it’s sold and he is fired.
Stew grows dangerously ill, ignoring clues that a neighboring factory farm’s toxic runoff has infected him. Envying his neighbor’s apparent success, Stew craves Billy’s payment for the generator to convert his farm into another factory farm.
Billy’s spy Gasket has confirmed Stew’s generator delivers unlimited power. Pretending to befriend the dim-witted Stew, Billy has used his two sexy henchwomen to drug Stew, who was persuaded, under the influence, to sign Billy’s contract. The generator now legally belongs to Billy’s company.
Before Stew lost consciousness, he managed to phone Pascal with a warning that Billy is coming for the generator and the farm will be without power. Billy and his two henchwomen have left Stew on the floor of a bar’s men’s room. Well-meaning locals call a paramedic to attend to Stew.
As Koyper, Jim and Andy speed to the farm, Pascal is frantically rigging a gas-powered generator to keep vital parts of the farm running. Burly Gasket stands guard as Billy’s two henchwomen give the generator a preliminary examination in preparation for its delivery to Chicago.
Stew recovers, is furious he’s been tricked, and escapes the care of Nate, a paramedic nurse who is alarmed over Stew’s vital signs. Stew storms back to his farm to catch Billy packaging up his generator. Stew and Billy argue, but Billy has the upper hand with Stew’s signature on his contract. Stew leaves in physical distress for the dairy shop’s restroom. As he leaves the generator building, Stew notices Pascal. In a rare moment of regret, Stew calls Pascal by his real name, instead of the derogatory nickname he’s used all his life.
Jim, Koyper and Andy sneak closer to the building hiding the generator. Gasket stands guard outside. Andy recognizes the departing Stew as the angry man who fired him after Andy landscaped his lawn terribly. Andy relapses, echoing and rocking back and forth behind a bush.
Koyper asks Andy if he can treat him. Andy consents. Koyper’s raises his fake iPad. A yellow beam shoots from the iPad to Andy’s head. Andy recovers, declaring himself cured. Koyper later confides to Jim that the beam was mostly a placebo. It worked because Andy had already started learning how to cure himself.
During Andy’s “treatment”, Jim watches Billy and the henchwomen drive away, not understanding the generator is leaving with them. Koyper then senses the generator field decreasing and expresses alarm that the generator is no longer there. Gasket stands between them and the generator building.
Koyper’s beam has a temporary side effect on Andy: excess confidence. Andy grabs his cow costume from Jim’s car, then runs in front of Gasket, mooing and flinging cow manure, which smacks Gasket in the face. Enraged, the thug chases a giggling Andy through a corn maze. Jim and Koyper enter the building. Finding only the dejected Pascal, they demand the location of the generator.
Pascal’s baffled that they know about the generator. Jim’s confused that Pascal wants assurance they are not dangerous Russian spies. Pascal then explains the generator is traveling to Chicago.
Jim exclaims that if it blows up in Chicago, it will kill tens of millions of people. Finally, Pascal understands 1G-O’s warnings. His Chicago boyfriend’s life is at stake. Jim and Koyper run to Jim’s car. Pascal runs after them. They pass a cheerful Andy who wrongly believes he’s winning the fight while a frustrated Gasket beats him up. Helpless, Jim yells to Andy that they will rescue him later.
Jim, Koyper, and Pascal jump into Jim’s car. With Koyper detecting the generator’s energy field, they speed after Billy’s truck. Pascal’s awed to learn from Jim that Koyper’s from outer space and the generator was made by aliens. Pascal shows them a blue shard that came with the generator. Koyper confirms it’s a remnant of his father’s spaceship and shows Pascal an identical shard of his own.
Andy recovers, tied up in a goat pen. Gasket’s car is gone. Andy scavenges feeding pellets and lures the goats to chew his bonds. Freed, Andy enters the dairy shop to find Stew has collapsed. Andy phones 911.
Jim speeds after Billy’s truck. Anyone leaving Door County must travel over a bridge to the mainland. With the bridge briefly up for canal traffic, they luckily find Billy’s truck stalled on Door County’s historic steel bridge.
Jim, Koyper, and Pascal jump out of Jim’s car. They try the back of Billy’s truck, but it’s locked. Koyper tries printing a key as he did with the cheese factory, but his iPad protests. It’s out of carbon atoms. Billy jumps out and signals his henchwomen. Pascal finds a croissant in his shirt pocket and flings it at Billy’s face, buying them time for Koyper to find a replacement cartridge. Billy’s two henchwomen appear, armed. All hope seems lost.
Koyper trains his iPad beam on Billy and the two henchwomen. The three villains suddenly appear enraptured. Koyper explains that stimulating their brain’s temporal lobes is giving them spiritual experiences, and he thought this was better than melting them.
Jim gets the keys to the truck and finds the generator inside. Koyper finds 1G-O can't be fixed. Sadly, he deactivates his father’s generator. 1G-O dies, but is no longer a threat. They leave Billy and his henchwomen dazed and recovering from their life-changing spiritual experiences.
Andy calls Jim, saying he’s at the hospital with Stew. Jim, Koyper and Pascal go to the hospital to find Andy covered with bruises but happy.
Stew is again in the hands of Nate the nurse. Nate explains Andy saved Stew’s life. Stew had a stroke caused by his infection, but is likely to regain control of the affected side of his body and speech with care and physical therapy. To stimulate healing, Koyper scans Stew’s brain with his iPad. Koyper’s unable to resist tweaking Stew’s anger reflex, explaining he isn’t supposed to do such things.
Finally, Jim, Andy, and Koyper drive Pascal back to the farm. Pascal finds all his fellow farmworkers have responded to his calls and are pitching in, rigging up emergency power.
Jim, Andy, and Koyper head to Jim’s house. Jim messages the panicking Mark in Chicago to say the crisis is over. Mark finally sleeps without nightmares.
Andy reenters the cafe where his speech disorder created a scene. Pascal joins him, explaining to Jenny, the barista that Andy has a crush on, that Andy is a hero who saved his employer’s life. Andy expresses himself better, winning the heart of Jenny. Jenny’s an expert tea brewer, providing Andy ample herbal tea, replacing Andy’s beer habit. Jenny’s received her CNA license and winds up caring for Stew, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound. Jenny greets Stew’s usual lecherous comments with cool sarcasm, and for the first time, Stew doesn’t get mad. He laughs at himself, instead.
Jim tearfully says goodbye to Koyper in the same spot where they met in the woods. Koyper lets Jim study his spaceship, urging the engineer to build his own. He leaves with the parting words, “We can’t wait to welcome you on the Colony!”
Billy’s team dissects the dead generator to learn how it works. They’re frustrated to find its insides have turned into goo. Gasket is incensed that his boss Billy and the two henchwoman seem spacey and different. They seem almost kind.
Stew learns that the neighboring factory farm that he coveted is actually going bankrupt. His neighbor, promised riches by a milk aggregator, can not manage the thousands of cows that they expect him to maintain. Ramiro, a farmhand with legal expertise, rescues both farms, bringing in a legal team promising to sue the milk aggregator responsible for bankrupting Stew’s neighbor, forcing him into unsanitary cost-saving practices and almost costing Stew’s life with a life-threatening infection. To raise money for the suit, Stew surprises everyone by offering up his prized collections and gold Rolex watch.
Pascal’s elated. His boyfriend has traveled from Chicago to be him as the farm transitions during Stew’s recovery. They invite suggestions from a local green farm collective to restart the Wafflequisp farm in an environmentally friendly way.
On their return to Door County, Mark promises his wife Sue he will explain the story in parts, warning her she won’t believe him. Sue’s best friend is Molly, a scientist and Jim’s love interest. Sue and Molly have worked out that something happened to Mark and Jim in the woods. Sue calls Molly. Sue discloses that Mark revealed that he, Jim, and Andy saw a spaceship land in the woods, triggering his fear of remaining in the county. Molly would normally be skeptical, but she’s already met Jim’s new friend, Koyper, who suggested a revolutionary solution to Molly’s bionic leaf invention. Because of this evidence, Molly persuades Sue to trust her husband.
Sue and Mark are surprised by a large business grant from a mysterious organization sounding like Koyper’s nickname. They install an environmentally-friendly just-in-time printer and fashion a safe zone for their cat in the store. Tech-savvy Sue enables their cat, with her unusual eyes, to become social media star, flooding their bookstore with Albireo fans. Mark and Sue have put off having children. During a big press release party for their bookstore, Sue thrills Mark with the news that she is pregnant.
Molly is relieved to learn that the postdoc that threatened the integrity of her research back in Madison has abruptly left. A person whose name resembling Koyper’s nickname emailed Molly’s principal investigator, revealling the postdoc’s record of suspicious publication retractions. Confronted, the postdoc left.
Molly and Jim are happily dating. We last see Jim the engineer and Molly the scientist talking about building a spaceship together.
Wow, Holly! I was wondering about doing my synopsis, and this helps! I didn’t want to read the ending but kept going. You said there was a video on synopsis’s that helped you and can you send me a link to that? See you next Tuesday!
Posted by: Margie S | 09/24/2024 at 12:24 PM
“ Engineer Jim grills Koyper about how his alien technology works, imagining it might save humanity. Koyper explains the universe’s highest technology is not distant nor alien but found in life on Earth. Koyper’s Colony’s survival depends on technology gleaned from living cells.”
My favorite part!
Keep going!
Dr Bob
Posted by: Robert M W | 09/24/2024 at 12:40 PM