Duronimus Karlof is a rising star at Harvard. He holds a prestigious professorship, his students idolize him, and he is widely considered one of the most influential scientific minds of his generation. The death of a colleague, however, forces him to reconsider his life's purpose.

Inspired by cutting-edge thinking in the humanities, he begins to question the oppressive nature of reality. Cynically exploiting his position at the university, he assembles a critical mass of experts with the mission to prove that there is some loophole in the scientific conception of the cosmos.