Now that Ben and his mom, Laura, are safely settled in Thomas Mombecko’s home, with Mesmo posing as dad & husband, he starts school as Ben Archer and makes friends with a First Nations girl, Kimi, whose own situation is as difficult as Ben’s. However, he’s disturbed by the psychic messages Tike sends him and deliberately pushes them away, hurting his closest companion. He also starts receiving messages from other animals, such as an injured crow he and Kimi take to her mother, Maggie, a former veterinarian, which makes Ben question whether he’s losing his humanity to his gift. At the same time, Laura discovers that Mesmo has a very brief window to return to his planet, while his physical body is still trapped in the detention center. And, of course, Agents Hao and Connelly are still on their trail, while Mesmo sees the man in charge of his imprisonment on TV, the head of a failing oil company who just happened to be Ben’s Grampa’s neighbor and knows the truth about the Cosmic Fall.

Forced once again to run, Ben & Laura take off in Maggie’s old truck and flee into the mountains, closely pursued by Hao & Connelly, but between Mesmo’s water gift and Ben’s gift to telepathically communicate with animals, they’re able to fend off the agents. However, their escape is harrowing and costly, and as they hitch a ride to the greyhound station in Calgary, both Ben & Laura are weighed down by grief … not knowing that across the mountains, Kimi receives a visit from the recovered crow, bearing a positive sign …