Colt is a teenage boy, the only child of divorced parents, living in Nevada. For all his brilliance, he is impossible at school and is being home-schooled by his mother. At least in theory. His mother is a biologist, on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough; his father works for a mysterious government agency that isn't supposed to exist. Socially awkward and benignly neglected by his parents, Colt spends most of his time living in a virtual reality gaming world. Colt is on the spectrum, to say the least. Like most people who are borderline autistic, Colt tries to keep his life simple. But when Colt meets a girl online; when he submits his mother's breakthrough scientific paper to a conference and the paper comes to the attention of the organization his father works for; when his father comes to see his own son and ex-wife as threats to national security, things start to become complicated. Very complicated indeed . . .