At eleven years old Joe Norman is told by his dying father that he is an alien hiding on earth. Joe believes him. He grows up to be a die-hard fan-boy working in a comic shop. When he falls for down-to-earth Maria, a fellow sci-fi fan, he is inspired to lead a more normal social existence. Until intergalactic bounty hunters track Joe down at his new office and the couple soon learn the dangerous truth about who Joe really is.

David Hyde Pierce, playing an alien (credited as infinity-cubed in the opening credits), narrates a courtship in a late-20th century American city as an extraterrestrial nature documentary. The relationship "footage" is played straight, while the voice-over (with its most often wildly inaccurate theories) and elaborate visual metaphors add comedy.