Adina is born in northeast Philadelphia at the same moment that the Voyager I space probe launches from Florida.

Adina's impatient father pushes her down a flight of concrete stairs, and the fall activates her as an alien probe.

That night Adina wakes in a night classroom where her superiors instruct her to communicate with them via a fax machine.

Adina's father leaves the family permanently, and Adina and her mother are left to manage on their own.

In fourth grade, Adina meets Antoinette-Maria, nicknamed Toni, and the two Italian American girls become close friends.

After Adina refuses to perform oral sex on a classmate named Amadeo, Janae expels Adina from the summer dance troupe.

Adina is cast as the narrator in the high school production of Our Town and gives a thunderously applauded performance.

A classmate named Dakota wins the theater scholarship over Adina, closing off Adina's path to an acting program.

Adina reveals to Toni that she is from another planet, and Toni accepts the confession without hesitation.

Adina quits her diner job, packs her car, says goodbye to her mother, and drives to New York City.

Adina and her office coworkers are evacuated from their building after the Twin Towers are attacked by airplanes.

Adina's memoir about life on Earth is published, sells out its print run, and attracts widespread public attention.

Toni receives a breast cancer diagnosis and begins chemotherapy treatments that ultimately prove unsuccessful.

Adina sits beside Toni in her final moments and watches a light seem to lift from Toni's chest as she dies.

Solomon appears to Adina one last time to tell her that her people have come to Earth and she must deactivate.

Adina is born in Philadelphia and, after a fall activates her as an alien probe, begins secretly communicating with her superiors via a fax machine. She grows up forming one crucial friendship with Toni and finding rare moments of belonging, most vividly when she performs as the narrator in a high school play. After losing a theater scholarship, she works at a diner before eventually driving to New York City in search of something larger. Her memoir about life on Earth is published and attracts widespread attention, but personal losses mount as her best friend Toni is diagnosed with cancer and ultimately dies. With her communications from her superiors fading and her sense of purpose eroding, Adina receives a final visitation that signals it is time to leave Earth behind.

The defining milestones of Adina's life as an alien probe on Earth.

Adina's mother rescues a discarded fax machine from a neighbor's trash and places it in young Adina's bedroom.

Adina and her mother visit Beautyland supply store, spray perfumes extravagantly into the air, and are scolded by a clerk.

Adina's class takes a trip to the planetarium, where Adina is captivated and searches for her home planet among the stars.

Adina's mother discovers that Mark, the colleague she has been dating, is actually married to someone else.

Before high school begins, Adina spends a month at Mrs. Leafhalter's beachside cabin, walking the boardwalk and avoiding sad calls from her mother.

Worried that no one will celebrate her, Adina receives a surprisingly large number of balloons on her school birthday.

Adina's mother drives them to the beach to celebrate Adina's birthday and shares a bottle of wine with her daughter.

After excelling in Italian class with help from Solomon, Adina is accused of cheating by her skeptical professor.

Solomon visits the night classroom one final time to tell Adina that her lessons are finished but her mission must continue.

Carl Sagan dies, and Adina mourns deeply, feeling she has lost one of the father figures in her life.

Mrs. Leafhalter dies suddenly, and her niece gives Adina and her mother the television Mrs. Leafhalter left behind.

Adina adopts a small dog she names Butternut during her years living in New York City.

Adina's superiors reveal through a fax that they are attempting not to die and urgently need to know if Earth is habitable.

After her superiors refuse to identify other alien probes living on Earth, Adina angrily unplugs her fax machine.

Adina says a final goodbye to Butternut by surrendering the dog's frozen body to the veterinarian.

From the fax machine rescued from a neighbor's trash to the slow accumulation of losses in adulthood, this pool follows the supporting events that give texture to Adina's life. Childhood discoveries like the planetarium and Beautyland nourish her sense of wonder, while her mother's romantic disappointments ripple into Adina's understanding of human relationships. High school brings academic struggles and the bittersweet farewell from her mentor Solomon, while the deaths of Carl Sagan and Mrs. Leafhalter mark the disappearance of anchoring figures from her past. In New York, Adina finds small consolations—a dog, a gym class, a loyal editor—while her superiors' admission that they are dying deepens her cosmic isolation. The pool ends with Adina surrendering the last remnants of her old life, including her fax machine and her beloved dog.

The secondary moments, discoveries, and losses that shaped Adina's journey.

In the night classroom, Adina learns that her people have evolved past individual bodies and that their home planet is in danger.

After discovering that Mark is married, Adina's mother buys soil and begins planting a garden in the apartment complex yard.

Toni's older brother Dominic explains the mechanics of making out to Adina, marking one of her earliest direct encounters with human sexuality.

Watching the series finale of the sitcom Cheers with her mother, Adina is overcome by an unexpected and profound sadness.

Toni discovers the folder containing all of Adina's faxes to her superiors and begins pressing Adina to explain what they mean.

Toni confesses that Audrey's swim club tolerated racist insults directed at Toni and that Audrey rejected Toni's romantic feelings for her.

Dominic visits Adina at the diner and, in a candid late-night moment, reveals that he is attracted to men.

Adina watches a documentary about Pando, a single aspen organism in Utah, and recognizes it as a mirror of her alien collective.

Adina sits down with her mother and describes her experience as an alien, but her mother hears only dissatisfaction with life.

Adina meets Miguel, a musician who claims to also be an alien, and she wonders if he is genuinely one of her people.

Adina realizes that Miguel uses the word alien only as a metaphor for feeling different, not as a literal truth.

During a day trip to Coney Island, Dominic declares that he, Toni, and Adina are all queer.

Adina discovers Butternut lying dead beneath her desk and places the dog's body in her freezer, unable yet to say goodbye.

Scientists announce the discovery of an interstellar object named Oumuamua, and Adina becomes convinced her planet sent it to retrieve her.

Adina sends a single-word fax summarizing Earth to her superiors, then imagines riding the Staten Island ferry out into the harbor.

This pool focuses on the key moments of self-discovery, confession, and revelation that quietly shaped Adina's identity and sense of purpose. Early lessons about her alien mission—including the truth that her people may need Earth to survive—give her childhood an urgent undertone, while her friendship with Toni deepens through mutual confessions that neither has shared with anyone else. Adina's encounters with human sexuality, from Dominic's casual explanation of making out to her unsatisfying relationship with Miguel, gradually clarify what kind of connection she actually desires. Dominic's naming of all three friends as queer, and the discovery that the aspen colony Pando mirrors her alien collective, offer frameworks for understanding herself that she has long lacked. The pool closes with Adina's final transmission and her decision to leave Earth, completing the arc from activation to deactivation.