The time is late-21st Century. Tali Rosen is an accomplished net-stretcher for Nacho-Net, headquartered in Havana. Tali's life begins to unravel when her Cuban fiancée cheats on her. At the same time, Tali's Aunt falls into a coma after an automobile accident, and Tali retreats home to Northern California. There she finds she can communicate with her comatose aunt through what Tali will learn is called the tsunami: a potent fusion of organic, electronic and spiritual networks made possible by the creation of DnetA. Operating outside the confines of time and space, the tsunami enables Tali to venture back and forth across the boundary regions between life and death. Swept up by this tidal wave, she learns that the tsunami itself is an artificial recreation of the bardos of Tibetan Buddhism, and is a marketing experiment that has gone horribly wrong. In the end Tali must risk everything to undo the damage the tsunami has wrought to the border region separating life and death.