Warner De Santis, a cosmologist obsessed with trying to hear God back in time at the "Origin of the Universe," gets fired from NASA, drives to the Mojave Desert, crashes his car, and remains in a small mining town until his car is fixed. There, Warner encounters persons that might be "spirit messengers." Taking their words as instructions, he goes on a mission to find what the Native Americans regard as the "Place of Origin." In the end, Warner finds in the ordinary world, close at hand, the spiritual meaning that escaped his reaching into the distance of space and time.