The year is 1992, 25 years in the future from the date of the book’s publication. Glen Runciter is the head of Runciter Industries, a New York-based organization that employs “inertials” who possess the ability to block telepaths engaging in corporate espionage. One night, a technician contacts Runciter to tell him that S. Dole Melipone, the city’s top telepath, is missing. Melipone, who has the ability to change his physiognomy, has repeatedly blocked Runciter’s team’s efforts to read his mind and locate him. Runciter decides that he needs the help of his dead wife for the problem.

Herbert Schoenheit von Vogelsang runs a moratorium where dead relatives remain stored in “half-life.” Half-life is a system that stores the dead’s consciousness and allows others to interact with it until the half-life runs out. This is the new standard for handling the dead. “Burial is barbaric,” Herbert says, a “remnant of the primitive origins of our culture” (6).

Runciter demands a private room for he and his wife, Ella Runciter. Herbert knows Mr. Runciter as the famous executive for one of the anti-psi organizations known collectively as “Prudence Organizations,” There is also no way for Herbert to tell how old Runciter is, as he possesses numerous “artiforg” implants, artificial organs that make him appear younger.