Soon it is discovered that a strange luminous object has entered the Solar System, its gravitational pull causing the disturbance.
The impact robs Neptune of its centrifugal force and out of its solar orbit, sending the fireball careening toward the sun.
Scientists assure the public there is no danger, as they have plotted the Star's trajectory to carry it harmlessly millions of miles from Earth.
Meanwhile a mathematician takes days to calculate a new trajectory, factoring the gravitational pull of Jupiter, previously overlooked by other scientists, which will alter the course of the Star and indeed put Earth in its path.
A collision seems imminent when suddenly, an inexplicable shadow passes across the land, blocking the unbearable light and heat.
At the end of the story Martian astronomers have witnessed the event, and observe that not much has changed on the distant planet apart from the melting of ice at the poles.
The early part of the story, before the dire danger had become obvious, includes a reference to a South African city where "a great man had married, and the streets were alight to welcome his return with his bride.
This story is often credited with having created a science fiction subgenre depicting the impact event of a planet or star colliding, or near-colliding with Earth – such as the 1933 novel When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer (made into a film in 1951), Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer (1965), and Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1977).
Jules Verne's 1877 novel Hector Servadac describes a comet colliding with Earth, taking bits of land (and inhabitants) with it on its orbit around the Sun.