The seven Lau who are supposed to perform the ritual are attacked on the surface of Borg by "Breakers" – intergalactic smugglers who conduct their business through an orbiting space station operated by the United Mining Combine.

[1] The player must first become familiar with the social network of the residents of the space station, take sides in a dispute between enemy smugglers and uncover cases of drug and human trafficking.

The player also has to deal with the question of why United Mining Combine operates the space station in orbit at Borg, sometimes in high secrecy, even though all raw material deposits from the planet have already been depleted.

This synthesis of analog books and computer games reached its height of popularity between 1984 and 1986 with the release of numerous literary text adventures such as Amnesia, Dragonriders of Pern, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[3] Unlike other literary text adventures, Breakers was not based on the work of a well-known author, but on a 40-page novella written by Rodney Smith, an acquaintance of several Synapse employees.

Adams praised the game's story, calling Rodney Smith's humorous writing a successful mix of object and communication-related puzzles.

[6] Graham Nelson, inventor of the interactive fiction programming language Inform, called Breakers a "story about identity work", and said the technique of communicating with NPCs was reminiscent of interrogations.