In 2001, after man has conquered space and discovered that no life exists on the moon, Venus, Mars, or Neptune, Earth's governing body, the United Nations, sends a five-man international expedition to explore Uranus. They land in minus 200° temperature in a beautiful but eerie land where they encounter women they knew in their past lives. Further exploration reveals that the planet is controlled by a mysterious evil Being that gives reality to all subconscious thoughts, fears, and desires: when one of the astronauts recalls his fear of rats, for instance, a huge rodent-like creature materializes. Realizing that they must destroy the Being if they are to escape from their past and return to the present, the Earthmen hunt down the creature in its hiding place in one of the caves below the surface of the planet. Since the creature can exist only in the near-normal subsurface temperature of the cave, the men destroy it by freezing it with liquid oxygen. One of the women from the past pleads to be taken back to Earth, but her image disintegrates en route.