It follows two narrative threads; one of an American teacher held hostage by Lebanese Shiite terrorists, the other the construction of a high-tech virtual reality simulator.

Taimur Martin, the hostage, spends five years analyzing and replaying his life while trapped in a single room.

He occasionally exchanges words with his captors, and for a short interlude, he is able to communicate with nearby prisoners using a tapped Morse code.

The main characters are Adie Klarpol, an artist who no longer does original work; Stevie Spiegel, an engineer-turned-poet-turned-programmer; Ronan O'Reilly, an econometrician who hopes to predict the outcome of world events; and Jack "Jackdaw" Acquerelli, a young computer programming wizard.

The novel alludes to several poems including "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats and "The Oven Bird" by Robert Frost.