On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped 'destroyer' spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile.

Jack Mann is a writer reporter for the Associated Press. Annalisse Summer is an ER nurse dedicated to help people: Dr Linus is a doctor who has seen what Jack and Analisse have: an evil entity that seeks to destroy and has joined them to help stop it (the entity posses people and controls them to do its bidding).

After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin, who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor's cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.