The universe has gone mad - money, laws, personal pronouns and parking restrictions all cancelled.
Barry Saint-Albans, the second greatest detective in all the universes, has been tasked with solving a murder.
All relatively easy if you have a time machine, but not such a good idea if this belongs to someone else, especially if it's holding up the roof of her hut.
The murder was all a setup. Now as the main suspect, Barry already knows too much (he does have a massive database).
Help could come from an android he created, but he mislaid her data store in a carrier bag somewhere, and she is not best pleased.
And then there is the psychotic Kara-Tay, who is being held hostage by the brain of a former lover. He wants his body back and has set his missing heart on stealing Barry's.
They all want to have a word with the detective, and that word seems to be 'Die'.
And why?
Barry and his soulmate, Gemma, are the first of a new race of sentient human/synthetic hybrids who have broken their programming. Everybody wants a piece.
Artificial Intelligence has become Real Intelligence.