Flyn and Sula offer to build a Ripper Ray to defend the Earth, but the Tomorrow People decline. John and Hsui Tai return to the Lab while Mike stays with Flyn and Sula. But Major Marcos arrives and knocks Mike unconscious. Meanwhile, the Galactic Federation have found the two thick ships. Flyn and Sula accompany the Major to see General Papa Minn. John jaunts to the Thargon thick ship to confront the Captain, who tells him that there are no slaves and no Overlords on their planet, and that Flyn and Sula are criminals. Flyn and Sula offer to show General Papa Minn how to build a Ripper Ray and use it to rule the Earth. After Mike regains consciousness he is told by Thing that the Thargon Overlords have re-captured Flyn and Sula, and so he returns to the Lab. Flyn, Sula and the General return to the slim ship, and the two aliens begin building the Ripper Ray. The Tomorrow People return to the slim ship but are seen by soldiers. John and Mike jaunt back to the Lab, but Hsui Tai is shot. Flyn, Sula and the General prepare to launch the slim ship so that the General can deliver his ultimatum, but John and Mike rescue Hsui Tai just before the slim ship lifts off, its blast destroying the island. The General forces Flyn and Sula to allow him to broadcast his demands, and to fire the Ripper Ray. The blast is detected by the Thargon thick ship, which heads for Earth.

When a small spaceship crashes into the Pacific Ocean region on Earth it causes an Earthquake, which is felt in the Tomorrow People�s Lab. The spaceship is piloted by two Thargons, Flyn and Sula, who have escaped from the fleet�s main �Thick Ship� in a short-range �Slim Ship�, which they have deliberately crashed into the Earth in order to bury it, and so escape detection from space. Believing the crash to have been caused by a meteorite, Tim traces the impact point to the island of Tarpin, part of the Melosean chain of islands. Mike and Hsui Tai jaunt to the island, but when Flyn and Sula decide to raise the ship to the surface, Hsui Tai is blinded by the engines. Back at the Lab, John repairs Hsui Tai�s eyes. A military airplane spots the �Slim Ship�, and its pilot reports back to the dictator General Papa Minn, who orders Major Marcos to investigate with troops. John, Mike and Hsui Tai return to the island and meet Flyn, Sula and Thing, the ship�s computer, and are told by the aliens that they are on the run from the ruthless Thargon Overlords for opposing the massacre of their slaves. Flyn warns the Tomorrow People that the Thargon Overlords will destroy the Earth when they find Flyn and Sula there.

John believes that the Nazis used genetic engineering at the end of the war. Major Hughes and some British soldiers from a local military base search for the place that the SS cadet came from. When they find the hidden entrance, Professor Friedl suggests using a weapon called the �Sleeping Giant�. Tim tries an experiment on Mike: he shows him a picture of Hitler, which causes Mike to salute; then he shows Mike a picture of Neebor in his natural, disgusting state, which breaks the control. When Major Hughes finds the secret door, �Hitler� takes control of the British soldiers via a broadcast, and orders them to kill Major Hughes, but he escapes and goes to the Lab. The SS cadets plan to broadcast a television message to the youth of the world to make them follow Hitler's orders. John, Hsui Tai and Major Hughes jaunt to the bunker, while Mike stays behind. John uses a stun gun to incapacitate the British soldiers, but �Hitler�, Karl and Professor Friedl go to the television studio, but they can only broadcast to a few European countries. John, Hsui Tai and Major Hughes jaunt into the television studio and stun the Professor and �Hitler�, but Karl arrives and forces John and Hsui Tai to drop their stun guns. When �Hitler� was stunned he lost control of his shape-changing, and he reverts to his natural state. Mike jaunts into the room and stuns everyone, including his friends, and tells �Hitler� to continue with the broadcast. As �Hitler� begins, he is stunned by Mike, causing him to revert once more, and this breaks the control of everyone watching.

The driver of an army Major knocks down and kills a young boy who looks fourteen years old and wears a Nazi uniform. In the Lab, John shows Hsui Tai a baby rat that is over seven years old - they normally only live to three or four - and explains that he is repeating an experiment the Americans tried, which stopped the aging process before maturity, causing the normal repair processes to work more efficiently, and giving the subject longer life. Tim shows them film of Adolf Hitler inspecting the laboratory of Professor Friedl, who was carrying out the same experiments in the 1940's. Mike arrives wearing parts of an SS uniform, which John tells him in disgust to take off before going out. Meanwhile, in an SS bunker, leader Karl Brandt gives a speech to his cadets in order boost their morale following the escape of one of their number; the cadets have been in the bunker for thirty-three years, since the defeat of Germany at the end of the Second World War. The cadets look after the sleepers, people held in suspended animation. Mike goes to a cafe without his uniform, but three youths wearing SS uniforms and calling themselves �Storm Troopers� attack him for being in their meeting place. Mike returns with a black eye to the Lab, where John tells him that there were gangs of young people all over the world who have developed a fascination for Nazi uniforms. One of the SS cadets finds some fluid leaking from the suspended animation equipment, and the inside person is dead. Tim receives a call on the special telephone line from Major Hughes of the SIS Special Squad, and John sends him a matter transporter to bring him to the Lab. The Major tells them about the boy being killed: German records show that he was born in 1930, and should have been forty-seven, and he also appeared in the film of Hitler Tim showed earlier. In the bunker, Karl decides to wake up Professor Friedl to ask his advice. Mike returns in uniform to the caf�, where the �Storm Troopers� are better disposed to him, telling him that they believe that Hitler is not dead, and will return to lead them. Back at the Lab, John tells Mike that Hitler is actually a shape-changing alien criminal called Neebor, who is on the run from the Galactic Federation. Meanwhile, the SS cadets bring �Hitler� out of suspended animation.

Mike somehow appears in the temple, bound in front of the flames next to Hsui Tai. Finding just the crashed glider and Mike's jaunting band, John telepathically contacts his friend, and Mike tells him that he is in the temple, where the monks think he is Kishnu. Hsui Tai picks up the telepathy, and Mike tries to persuade her to leave the temple, but she refuses, instead going into a meditative trance. Tim tracks Mike's co-ordinates, and John remarks that he will jaunt there with a jaunting band and a matter transporter for Hsui Tai, but the Sage overhears the conversation between Mike and Hsui Tai, and confronts Mike, telling him to leave without Hsui Tai. John arrives and overpowers the Sage, and he and Mike take Hsui Tai back to the Lab. After a while Hsui Tai comes out of her trance, but refuses to believe that she is not a god. After some of the monks become afraid and want to leave the temple, the Sage decides to find Hsui Tai and Mike and complete the re-birth ceremony. John and Mike explain to Hsui Tai who the Tomorrow People are, and show her how to jaunt. The Sage tells Matsu Tan that they must start the re-birth ceremony for one of the �other� gods. Hsui Tai tells John and Mike about these other gods, and the two decide to rescue them; they all jaunt to the temple, where the re-birth ceremony has begun, but Hsui Tai refuses to interfere in it, and after a struggle, takes Mike�s stun gun. John and Mike find the re-birth chamber and are attacked, but Mike manages to stun everyone in the chamber, while John releases the child. Hsui Tai arrives and uses the stun gun to stun John and Mike. The two awake to find themselves chained up in the ceremony chamber, along with Hsui Tai, who asks why John has been chained up as he cannot be re-born. Matsu Tan tries to release John, but is stopped by the Sage, who begins the ceremony, Hsui Tai jaunts back to the Lab, and returns with two stun guns, which she uses to stun everyone and stop the ceremony. Hsui Tai declares Matsu Tan Master of Meditation, in charge of the temple, all the children are sent back to their homes, and Hsui Tai joins the Tomorrow People.

John lets Mike take his first solo glider flight, but while in the air a girl, Hsui Tai, contacts him telepathically, and he loses control of the glider. Just in time, John manages to jaunt inside the glider and regains control. Hsui Tai tells Matsu Tan, a Shansu monk, that she believes Mike to be the lost god Kishnu. After Tim is unable to find a reason for Mike's blackout, Elizabeth contacts John and Mike while on a mission for the Galactic Federation. Matsu Tan and the Sage discuss Hsui Tai's contact with Kishnu, and decide that he must be found so he can be �re-born�. John lets Mike take another solo flight, and Hsui Tai tries to contact �Kishnu� again; Mike manages to keep control and lands safely, and remembers the names �Hsui Tai� and �Kishnu�; he and John are convinced that Hsui Tai is a Tomorrow Person, and Tim finds some newspaper articles featuring the names, and claims that the Shansu sect kill the �Child Gods� when they reach maturity so that they can be re-born into a new body. John and Mike try unsuccessfully to make contact with Hsui Tai, who, meanwhile, is told by Matsu Tan that it is time for her re-birth. John and Mike attempt to reproduce the conditions when Hsui Tai first made contact by flying John's glider again, but the weather conditions are too dangerous. Mike sneaks back to the glider and tries a solo flight, just as the ceremony of Hsui Tai's re-birth begins; she makes contact with Mike and he loses control of the glider, crashing it.