Something is rotten in tomorrow's computer world. The time: the not-too-distant future. Physical work is done by robot devices. Men and women are endowed at birth with a sum of credit called Inalienable Basic. Everyone operates with a Universal Credit Card—which is also identification, police record, medical record, and many other things. Every detail of life in the United States of the Americas is stored in the International Data Center, located in Denver.

Paul Kosloff, a language teacher, is rescued from a mysterious assault by a secret agent of the authorities who insists that only he, Kosloff, can prevent the International Data Center from being destroyed—and every living being's data wiped out. Kosloff goes forth...into a maelstrom of plot and counter-plot, murder, treason—and worse!