Tom Mishkin is piloting another routine supply flight when he hears an unusual noise and gets the distressing news: He’s about to be stranded on a backward planet and forced to hike across unknown and probably hostile terrain to find a cache of spare parts and get going again. Mishkin’s journey introduces him to strange aliens like a five-headed man-eating snake with Mob connections as his trek slowly warps into a metaphysical search for his soul and the meaning of human existence . . .