In the year 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed domed city, a utopia run by a computer that takes care of all aspects of their life, including reproduction. The citizens live a hedonistic lifestyle but understand that in order to maintain the city, every resident when they reach the age of 30 must undergo the ritual of "Carrousel" [sic]. There, they are vaporized and ostensibly "Renewed." To track this, they are implanted at birth with a "life-clock" crystal in the palm of their hand that changes colors as they approach their "Last Day."

What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he's being chased.

Kirito uncovers a conspiracy within Ordinal Scale, a popular VR game developed for a new system called The Augma.

As Dr. Will Caster works toward his goal of creating an omniscient, sentient machine, a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent him from establishing a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.