Alma is a private detective in a near-future England, a country desperately trying to tempt people away from the delights of Shine, the immersive successor to the internet. But most people are happy to spend their lives plugged in, and the country is decaying. Alma's partner is ill, and has to be treated without fail every four hours, a task that only Alma can do. If she misses the 5 minute window her lover will die. So when Alma is called to a car factory to be shown an impossible death and finds herself caught up in a political coup, she knows that getting too deep may leave her unable to get home. Alma must dig into the conspiracy, evade arrest, try to work out how a body appeared in a freshly-made car in a fully-automated factory, and get home.