As the Secretary-General of the United Nations announces the landing at a news conference, one of the aliens arrives and addresses the assembled delegates and journalists using an artificially created voice.
He states that his race's motive in coming to Earth is to provide humanitarian aid by sharing their advanced technology that can easily and inexpensively solve all energy and food shortages and prevent international warfare.
After answering questions, the Kanamit departs without comment and leaves behind a book in his language; Chambers, a cryptographer working for the United States government, is pressed into service to decipher it.
International leaders express wariness of the Kanamits' uninvited arrival on Earth, but start to believe their claims of benevolence upon seeing their advanced technology at work.
Patty, a member of Chambers' staff, translates the title of the book as To Serve Man, further bolstering public trust in the Kanamits.
The Kanamits deliver on their promise to turn the world into a Utopia, transforming barren deserts into productive agricultural land, and each nation is given an impenetrable force field that leads to the virtual disbandment of all militaries.
Even though Chambers' staff no longer have any real work to do, due to worldwide declarations of peace and the dissolution of the United States Armed Forces, Patty continues her efforts to decode the Kanamits' book, while Chambers decides to simply enjoy the newfound paradise and signs up for his own trip to the Kanamits' planet.
[8][9] References or parodies can be found in such television series as Futurama, The Simpsons,[10][11] and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; movies such as The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and Madagascar (The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear featured a tongue-in-cheek cameo by Lloyd Bochner, who played Michael Chambers in the TZ episode);[12][8] the comic strip Mark Trail;[13] and musical works by artists Nuclear Assault, Cattle Decapitation, Mono Puff, and El-P. A reference to the episode has even found its way into an unofficial emblem for a United States Air Force unit.