Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
In the clear skies of Montana, during an unprecedented worldwide incident of simultaneous first contact with extraterrestrial life forms, an ominous alien pod, out of twelve in total, comes to a standstill, hovering only a few feet over the green prairies. Inevitably, as panic ensues, Colonel G.T. Weber recruits a team of various experts, including the esteemed linguistics and dialectology, Professor Dr Louise Banks, and the theoretical physicist, Dr Ian Donnelly, burdening them with the impossible task to decipher a coded conversation with the intergalactic visitors. But, when all attempts to communicate prove fruitless, a practical, yet very important question will arise: does humanity have enough vocabulary to understand the aliens' answer before a new global war sparks?