Chapter 1: The Eve of the War

This chapter illustrates the relationship between the intelligence of extraterrestrials and that of humans, equating it to the distance between human and animal intelligence. The planet Mars is also indicated and suggests that life must have started there before planet Earth cooled; this is because Mars is older, and because the civilization that arose from there is much more advanced than the human one.

It also indicates that the red planet's polar caps are shrinking and its atmosphere is weakening. For all these reasons, he presumes that the Martians put their attention on the riches of the Earth.

Chapter 2: The Shooting Star

One night, a shooting star draws the attention of many astronomers and all citizens. Dropping about 100 miles away, Ogilvy is determined to find the meteor. When he arrives at the place, he is totally surprised by the presence of a huge cylinder, about 30 meters in diameter, which is still extremely hot from friction against the atmosphere in its fall and he realizes that it is an empty structure, and there seems to be someone inside trying to get out.

Chapter 3: At Horsell Common

When a lord arrives at the cylinder, he finds that a crowd of citizens has already gathered around him, with some youths even throwing stones at him. On closer inspection, it looks like a rusty gas tank or similar piece of junk. However, he notices that the metal the object is made of is nothing like any metal on Earth, so he quickly becomes convinced that it must have come from Mars, even though he assumes it is empty.

Newspapers are spreading the news about the Martian object found in the town of Woking, and more people come to see it. Some workers begin to dig it up, although this is not an easy task.