On a speeding transcontinental train, young Ty Falter wakes groggily in the corridor and realizes he may be in trouble if flamboyant Hollywood producer Cyril Bezdek finds him there. Before he can slip away, Ty overhears Bezdek pitching banker E. Carter Dorwin on the future of Gigantic Studios' science-fiction output: a profitable space-opera formula built on Venus crashes, swamp monsters, and heroic rescues. Dorwin worries the films are too fanciful and disconnected from reality, while Bezdek insists they are a safe, practical way to keep villains "off-world" and avoid offending real-world minorities. Their uneasy business meeting is interrupted by a mysterious, unnervingly perfect young man who has already caused trouble aboard the train. He reveals himself as a Martian protesting Earth's movies, warning that such portrayals could shape future relations and even spark interplanetary conflict. When the train is mysteriously immobilized and an alien ship appears outside, Bezdek, Dorwin, and Ty are forced to confront a sharp satirical truth: science fiction may be less fantasy than a preview of reality. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.