A bespectacled young farm-boy, growing up during the golden years of the space age, dreams of becoming an astronaut and walking on the moon. Against all odds, and with a lot of help, Alan Malone spends years cobbling together a home-made moonship, then stows away on the Space Shuttle and rockets away from Earth on his grand adventure. His adventure turns into a life and death struggle, as an ambitious NASA official learns of his plans and mobilizes all her resources to strand him forever in outer space - all to protect the shocking lunar secret that she's been concealing. As his adventure to the moon turns into a fight for survival, Alan, his friends, and a number of unexpected allies, embark on an even greater adventure: that of returning him safely to the earth.