Shanga, the Star-Dancer, dances through space. Suddenly, her "matrix-sense tingles", and she finds herself drawn across space to Earth, knowing that something there in the small town of Hartsdale, Massachusetts is linked to her fate...

In Hartsdale, Ben and Alicia are enjoying a quiet vacation, until an artist at a craft's fair objects to blind Alicia's handling his works. Ben overreacts, and creates a scene.

Observing this all is an elderly and frail Elton Morrow, who had been known as, in World War II, the Blue Diamond. He's now embittered, saddened, and feeling that he's wasted his life.

While Ben departs for a solo fishing trip, Shanga shows up and seals the town in a force field. The townspeople mob Alicia, sure that this involves Ben and the Fantastic Four in some way. Ben finds himself trapped outside the dome, unable even to dent it, while Elton suits up for the first time in decades and goes to Alicia's rescue...