This remarkable novella opens with a brief exchange among aliens who have been studying humanity from a distance and who detect an unusual
variation in our species. There is one genetic ability that is common to all intelligences in the universe, but only humans seem to lack the capacity
to use it. Explanations are needed, so a field team
is sent to study a small group of people and solve
the mystery. The scene shifts to Earth, specifically
a rooming house run by the Bittelmans, whose tenants include a single mom, a man troubled by
thoughts of suicide, an ambitious and impatient
young woman, a young boy whose imaginary
friends, Googie and Boff, might be something other
than products of his own creation, and a few others. Each of the characters is developed economically into an individual torn between conflicting
emotions and beliefs, with considerable depth and
hints of self contradiction arising from their preconceptions about each other.
There are several oddities in the arrangement,
to which the tenants awaken only gradually. The
Bittelmans ask questions and rarely make positive
statements, and it is almost impossible not to
answer them honestly. The development of the
individual characters and their personal crises alternates with occasional notes by the alien observers,
who are arguing about the type of stimulus they
should provide in order to find out why humans behave differently than all other intelligent life. These
conversations serve to activate the potential of the
dormant talent. Eventually, they set the building on
fire in order to push their experimental subjects to
the breaking point. During the ensuing emergency
each subject finds himself or herself capable of
making intelligent decisions in complex situations,
and in the process they also resolve their individual
problems. When the Bittelmans depart in the aftermath, we belatedly discover that they were disguises used by Boff and Googie, who were far more
than imaginary. Sturgeon’s aliens are almost inconsequential to the story, however, which is about
people, how they interact with others, and how
they unconsciously shape their own perceptions of
themselves and others in ways that are potentially
self-destructive. It also suggests that within each of
us is the capacity to see past our own illusions and
know our true selves.