One moment Matthew Rivers is designing a revolutionary computer operating system, the next he is discovered strung from a tree in his front yard. Authorities believe the death was a guilt-ridden suicide due to an exposed affair, however, Rivers's wife refuses to accept that theory and hires private investigator Chase Michael DeBarlo to seek the truth. Chase discovers a web of secrets behind the operating system Rivers had been designing, while others working on the project begin to turn up missing or dead in seemingly unrelated matters. In a turn of events that mixes social networking with code breaking, an unlikely coffee shop girl from Ohio helps tie it all together for Chase.