 The entire planet watches via global satellite television, mesmerized, as the explorers uncover a chamber in which a man and a woman have been in suspended animation since, as the French title suggests, "the night of time".The woman, Éléa, is awakened, and through a translating machine she tells the story of her world, herself and her man Païkan, and how war destroyed her civilization.She also hints at an incredibly advanced knowledge that her still-dormant companion possesses (a scientist, Coban, whom she hates for having separated her from her lover Païkan), knowledge that could give energy and food to all humans at no cost.