Haunted and hunted, Erik Mercier lived in the shadowy underworld of Paris during the chaotic mid-1800s. Was he a genius? A cursed madman? Some called him a murderer. Even Phantom of the Opera. In the year 2040 Howard Wheaton, the mastermind behind quantum computers, also controls time travel. The world's fate-after a Carrington event occurs-was discovered by a team he sent into the future. Wheaton brings Erik out of the past as part of a secret program to give humans another chance. But megacorporation PTB wants to seize control of time travel to consolidate its absolute power. Seeking to discredit Wheaton, PTB pulls strings to have Mercier charged with infamous murders based on the rumors surrounding his life. The two worlds collide in a Seattle office where attorney Kathryn Copeland is confronted by Mercier, a defiant, mercurial man, scarred in body and soul. Not only conflicted about defending him, she is deeply suspicious of those who brought Mercier from the past. What are their real motives? As she attempts to separate the truth about Mercier from the myth, Kathryn struggles to avoid becoming entrapped in the web of desperate schemes. Entwined with Mercier's fate is the fate of mankind. And time is running out in the shadow of our own impending phantom future.