It first appeared in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction and has been reprinted a number of times, including in Frontiers in Space (1955), Far Out (1961), and The Best of Damon Knight (1976).

The story opens at a special session of the UN where three alien emissaries are testifying that the purpose of their mission to Earth is to bring humans "the peace and plenty which we ourselves enjoy, and which we have in the past brought to other races throughout the galaxy".

He is determined to discover what they stand to gain by helping humans and takes a job at the alien embassy to learn their language.

Two weeks later, the narrator returns from a trip to find Grigori distraught, having discovered to his horror that the title is a double entendre.

[2] Knight's story was adapted for use as a 1962 episode of the television series The Twilight Zone,[3] in which the aliens are portrayed as 9 ft (2.7 m) tall humans with dome-like heads.