Achille is a young man employed by an Italian publishing house who wants to publish a science-fiction novel about a rocket in space. He has eyes for the publisher's daughter Lidia, but she bemoans that he has no money and that her father thinks science fiction is worthless. U.S. agents have discovered that his blood contains glumonium from a monkey-breast-milk diet as a newborn. (His father ran a zoo.) This makes him capable of space flight. They come to Italy hoping to recruit him for US space efforts with a $100,000 on-the-spot incentive. Because of language difficulties, Achille thinks they want to publish his book (i.e., launch it). He is unaware that supplemental lucrative payments are because he may not be able to return once shot into space. Based on his windfall, and the publisher thinking he has a star on his hands, Achille can now marry Lidia. The Germans want Achille for their space program, too. When they try to capture him, they also pick up Lidia's father. The alien Annelides, who have been monitoring Earth for some time, hope to prevent humans from attaining space travel, so they jump in and start making copies of both Achille and the publisher to confuse things.