The Synthetic Synergy drug Gus inhales before work heightens his ability to observe patterns and lulls him into accepting a world he once opposed. With a sweet girlfriend and gregarious best friend to share in his successes, his philosophical slacker days seem far behind him. But the ideological tradeoff he made for a content existence is not fully realized until a violent attack on a subway platform leaves him immobile and in a state of Synth withdrawal.

Frightening waking visions follow Gus and force him to look at the unholy side of the modern world and its state of perpetual war. After he makes an exodus to the desert in search of Basil, Gus becomes compelled to address the mysterious identity of his attacker, the kindness of his savior, and, eventually, the greater question of his own identity.