New York in 2040 is a city of the lost. A good place to work in Missing Persons. But business is not quite good enough for Hal Halliday to forget his sister, burned alive when only child all those years ago. And now VR offers the chance of bringing her back, the future may yet allow Hal to live in the past. If he can survive the next job ...

Hal Halliday runs a missing persons business in mid 21st century New York. It is a city that is drowning in refugees after terrorist outrages have left much of America a radioactive wasteland. People colour their grim lives with endless hours spent in VR. It is an addiction which has made VR magnate Sergio Mantoni a multi-millionaire. But now Mantoni faces a threat from a guerilla group called VIREX, who are dedicating to ending the false promise of VR. And when Hal accepts a job to look for the missing sister of a Holodrama star, he find himself drawn into the complex world of VR and VIREX ...

In a futuristic variation upon the modern detective story, we follow Hal as he returns from retirement, seeking the answer to the mysterious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, last seen with a child prodigy and an unknown older man. We accompany him during his encounters with the jaded individuals who now occupy sullied Manhattan, and share his anguish at the gradual realization of the devastating effects that Virtual Reality is having upon his fellow citizens, rapidly losing their abilities to interact in the real world.