In 2084, in Upstate New York, Dr. Jonathan Kelton, scientist and chemistry professor, returns home after spending a year in a coma. He has literally been put back together after a catastrophic explosion in his home lab, an event that remains mysterious to him. Under the care of the enigmatic Dr. Rose, he discovers strange gaps in his recent memory -- even as he tries desperately to re-bond with his wife, with whom he was in a faltering marriage, and his seven-year-old son. When the body of his one-time 28-year-old, female graduate student surfaces in the Hudson River after a storm -- having been mutilated and submerged a year earlier -- Jonathan is devastated to find himself accused of her murder. In fact, as he pieces together memories on his own -- with the aid of a remote psychiatric device he creates for himself -- he starts to recall details of a possessive and dangerous affair with her; in the face of a jealous boyfriend, a demanding, drug addict half-brother, a possibly sinister connection to a bomb plotter at their own university, and also, the girl’s own increasingly sadomasochistic tendencies. Even as he worries that the doctor’s radical, experimental surgery has left him subject to some form of mind control because of his memory lapses, Jonathan tries to race the police to find out who murdered this scared and wayward girl, to protect himself and his family. Did he ever really know the truth? Can he find out who does? Or could he himself really be the killer?