In Neo Babylon, your neural implant is your identity. You use it as your credit card, to surf the Altnet, to chat with friends, to login to work or school, and to be pestered by advertisements. Anyone without one is cut off from society. Nick can’t get a neural implant. That fact turns his daily life into hell, but the city's underworld has its plans for him. Being invisible to the city’s omnipresent tracking has its perks. Without a neural presence, he’s someone who is felt but not seen—a wraith. His natural advantage leads him to work on illegal projects, including one to create human-like AI “dolls.” Until the government shuts down everything and Nick is reduced to a life of back-office IT drudgery, under strict monitoring.