Ogilvy a Surrey astronomer observes Mars and sees a flash from the planet and believes a shooting star has landed near Horsell. Searching and finding no meteorite but cylinder from which something is trying to escape Ogilvy realises that this is what he saw shooting from Mars. Trying to communicate with the Martians Ogilvy becomes one of the first victims of the Martian invasion. The powerlessness of human weapons, the treatment by one species of another and the role of microscopic allies are modern themes in this Victorian Science Fiction.