在13歲那一年亨利被外星人綁架了，一點都不開玩笑，之後外星人定期造訪並在16歲那年給了他一道終極難題－地球將在144天後毀滅，但如果按下這個紅色按鈕，這一切就不會發生，全人類的生死莫名其妙地就掌握在亨利手上。
不論這是什麼外星人為了觀察人類物種的道德感，詭異的宇宙陰謀或是單純針對亨利的惡作劇，對他來說，被外星人抓走並不算是他運氣最差的時候，除此之外的經歷反而才是他的人生低潮，在爸爸拋棄一切離家以後，便看著媽媽承受著煙霧繚繞環境辛苦地擔任服務生，與亨利感情不好的兄弟則是無業的中輟生，唯一與他較為親密的奶奶則逐漸受阿茲海默症侵蝕，且不看家庭問題，校園中的亨利被同學孤立，以前的朋友還背叛了他，亨利自己心裡也有個坎還過不去－他的男友去年自殺了，這一切使他的心情瀕臨崩潰狀態。
究竟要不要按下這個按鈕拯救世界，此刻的亨利還沒有定見，只是心底一直有聲音低語，也許地球毀滅也能讓他不用再面對這一切。
Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.
Only he isn't sure he wants to.
After all, life hasn't been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer's. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend's suicide last year.
Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him.
But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it...or let the world--and his pain--be destroyed forever.
