Year 2257. Todd Hewitt's homeland, a colonized planet called New World, where men's thoughts have a visual and auditory embodiment and are called the Noise. A boy lives outside a small village inhabited exclusively by men and has not yet learned to hide his thoughts from those around him. One day, a scout ship from the second wave of colonists crashes onto the planet, and Todd, for the first time in his life, sees a girl. The local mayor decides to use her in his nefarious schemes, but the girl escapes, and now she cannot get by without Todd's help.