It is late in the twentieth century. The Americans and Russians are still managing to make a show of linking up in space. But Britain, like many smaller countries, is teetering into the Third World. Its streets are blocked with barricades and festering rubbish, and haunted by killer-gangs. The Urban Collapse has finally happened.

Old Professor Bernard Quatermass, once a pioneer of space research himself, grabs the chance to appear on a bankrupt TV network to denounce the wasteful Russo-American project... only to witness their satellite linkup mysteriously abort, sweeping bodies and wreckage out into black emptiness. He is aghast to find himself suspected of some sabotage involvement. He escapes from London. All that is left for him now is to continue his obsessive search for a young girl, his missing granddaughter. He suspects she may have joined one of the groups of the Planet People cult who straggle through the countryside chanting their hysterical belief in a better life on another planet. He follows as thousands of them converge on the ancient stone circle of Ringstone Round. It is there that a weird fulfillment occurs. For Quatermass it is only the beginning of a long horror.

IN SPACE the Russians and Americans squander billions on pointless projects.

ON EARTH there is anarchy. Civilisation is breaking down.

Gangs of killers roam the rubbish-strewn streets. Fuel and food shortages have made the population desperate. Through the countryside bands of mystics calling themselves the Planet People chant their crazed beliefs.

Professor Bernard Quatermass, once a space pioneer himself, is an old man now. Disgusted and appalled by the state of the world, he has one final mission — to find and save his young granddaughter. She may have joined the Planet People. He follows as thousands of them converge on the ancient stone circle of Ringstone Round.

It is there that he witnesses an event that defies all sanity. For Quatermass it is the beginning of a long horror — a terrifying paranormal power has begun to afflict the Earth.