Three decades in the future, in a public garden north of New York City, a man enjoying the seasonal blossoms, butterflies, and buzzing bees notices a strange flying insect unlike any he's ever seen before. When it stings him between the eyes, he is overwhelmed by a tidal wave of memories crashing through his mind in a flood of simultaneous sensations and emotions. As he collapses, he manages to catch and hold onto the bug.

At the hospital, medical technologist Pilar Ramirez watches as the creature is pried from Lester Ordway's hand. It releases a swarm of even smaller insects that sting her and several other people in the emergency room causing similar, if milder, cognitive effects. Frightened but fascinated (and frustrated by the hospital's attempt to dismiss what happened after the bugs disappear), Pilar befriends Lester and joins his quest for an explanation. Pilar and Lester enlist the help of entomologist Maybelle Terwilliger, and the three soon begin to suspect that they have discovered a secret alien invasion of Earth. An incursion on a tiny scale but of global scope, it is pervasive reconnaissance that puts the legendary hundred eyes of Argus to shame. Somebody is literally bugging the planet. Can Pilar and her friends convince the government before it's too late?