Protagonist Leonard Neeble attends a new school, Bat Masterson Junior High, where he is bullied by his classmates and neglected by the staff.

When Alan starts a school-wide quarrel over his claim to Martian ancestry, both are suspended from school for one week; during which, they meet Samuel Klugarsh, the owner of an occult bookstore, who sells them a kit meant to enable telepathy and psychokinesis.

Alan and Leonard are skeptical of the course's wild claims and predictions until they unexpectedly find an article in the text mentioning them both by name; when they follow its directions for interpreting Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary, they become more capable of mind control experiments.

According to the book's instructions, they enter the parallel Earth known as 'Waka-Waka', where the locals have established a ritualistic culture based on the drinking of fleegix, a beverage similar to hot chocolate; but have fallen under the control of the extraterrestrials 'Manny, Moe, and Jack', who control the supply of ingredients and whose rule is enforced by the deadly and invisible 'Wozzle'.

Here, they are commanded to withdraw from Waka-Waka to their own world of Nafsulia, by Rolzup, the Martian High Commissioner (himself invited by Alan).