Scully meets with Jose Chung, a famous author researching a book about an alleged UFO encounter in Klass County, Washington. Scully recounts how a teenaged girl, Chrissy Giorgio, was found inside her boyfriend's car on a deserted country road. Chrissy exhibited signs of physical abuse. Scully theorizes she may have been a victim of date rape.
     Chrissy's boyfriend, Harold Lamb, was questioned by Detective Manners. Lamb claimed that he and Chrissy were abducted by aliens. Lamb passed a lie detector test, but when Mulder and Scully arrived at the scene, he changed his story and claimed he raped Chrissy.
     Unsatisified with Lamb's account, Mulder asked Chrissy if she experienced any unusual symptoms-such as vision problems and nose bleeds-after the encounter allegedly took place. She claimed she saw sudden flashes of an alien's face. Mulder became convinced the girl was suffering from "Post Abduction Syndrome." Scully, meanwhile, attributed her ailments to stress disorder triggered by sexual trauma.
     Under hypnosis, Chrissy described how she and her boyfriend were examined by aliens aboard a spaceship-confirming Lamb's original alibi.
     Later, the agents interviewed Roky Crikenson, an electric company employee who allegedly witnessed the abduction and recorded his observations in a manuscript. Roky described how strange men wearing black clothing visited his home the previous evening and warned him not to divulge his story.
     Mulder read Roky's manuscript and concluded it verified Lamb's account of what occurred on the night of the alleged abduction. But Mulder was puzzled by Chrissy's story, which did not match Roky's or Lamb's versions.
     Chrissy was again placed under hypnosis. During the second session, she described how she was interrogated by men from the Air Force and CIA. This led Mulder to speculate that the case might not have anything to do with aliens after all.
     The agents were alerted about the discovery of a dead alien. But during an autopsy examination, Scully discovered the alien was, in fact, a dead man wearing a costume. A check of military records revealed the deceased was Air Force Major Robert Vallee.
     When Vallee's body disappeared, Mulder tracked down Blaine Faulkner, who videotaped Scully's "autopsy." But the mysterious "men in black" beat the agent to Faulkner's doorstep and took possession of the tape. After leaving Faulkner's apartment, Mulder encountered a naked man walking along a country road. He realized the man was Lieutenant Jack Sheaffer, a missing military officer. Sheaffer admitted that he piloted a fake UFO-type craft developed by the military to confuse potential invading forces. But Sheaffer was convinced that he, Vallee, and the two teenagers were actually abducted by a real UFO.
     Mulder then returned to his motel room, where he later claimed to have encountered the "men in black," and a man who strongly resembled game show host Alex Trebek.
     The agents were informed that a top secret government plane crashed in a forest nearby. Detective Manners claimed that the UFO sightings could be attributed to the strange craft-until Vallee's body is pulled from the wreckage.
     In the present day, Mulder approaches Chung and asks him not to write the book. He fears any account of the events will only make the participants look foolish. Chung denies his request.