It begins with a rather unusual call from a resident, a woman who says her uncle isn’t really her uncle.

On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovers an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms are taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loves, and the world as he knows it.

A paranoid, frantic mood consumes and pervades throughout, as told through the perspective of Miles, as he and Becky Driscoll try to escape the unknown entity or understand its plan.

[There have been three movie adaptations (1956, 1978, 1993), but the book has notable differences.]