After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States government attempts to counter future acts of terrorism against the United States and its allies. The CIA's response to this executive order is Jay Weaver's revolutionary invention; a covert listening device that fuses nanotechnology with artificial intelligence. Jay, a quirky and innovative engineer tortured by numerous personal difficulties-the recollection of his girlfriend's infidelity, his father's psychological manipulation, and his mother's mental illness-immerses himself in his work to avoid confronting this pain, striving to prove himself as a capable engineer and project leader while unwittingly placing himself, his family, and the Constitutional rights of all Americans at risk. Once the government's hidden agenda for the use of his creation is discovered, Jay finds himself torn between completing his work and destroying it to spare the world a future filled with fear and paranoia.