Frederick Williams comes home from work one day, to find a mysterious stranger waiting for him. The man wants to talk to him about his recent entry to a newspaper competition, where people solve weekly puzzles, and send in their results. It is a test to suss out who in the area has psychic abilities.
Fred has zero interest in talking to the man about the competition, so the man goes to drastic measures - he gets the police to arrest Fred, to force the man to go with the man to his government building. And once he gets there, the man, Dr. Howard Spinnell, proposes a recruitment to a prestigious scientific program, known as 'the Divers'.