MIT engineering professor Evan Blake has discovered a strange object in London. It looks like a vinyl LP record, yet plays a seemingly unlimited amount of jazz, which appeals to Evan as a jazz musician. The previous owner, cellist and composer Nigel Thompson, had heard classical music coming from the same disc. Evan examines the device and finds highly advanced nanotechnology at work. He concludes it must be of extraterrestrial origin, designed to resemble an object familiar to humans, and meant to relay some sort of message. While in Paris, he shares his evidence with biochemistry professor...