Tesla Effect begins in 2050, seven years after Tex and his love interest, Chelsee Bando, were attacked at the end of Tex Murphy: Overseer. The story starts as Tex suddenly awakes disoriented in his office at the Ritz Hotel with strange markings and signs of violence on his body and no memory of the past seven years. He then discovers that Chelsee has been missing ever since the attack and is presumed dead. He sets out to find out what happened to him, what became of Chelsee, and to regain his past memories, and in so doing uncovers a web of intrigue involving murders, double crosses, and the lost inventions of Nikola Tesla.