Don Tessier is a space cadet at Vancouver's Space Training Academy. Brain implants have enhanced his memory, and speeded up his learning processes. In another year he's to be fully telepathic, and take his place in the world-wide technocracy. Lucas, the benefactor who paid for Dom's education, is a convict who's now returned from Mars. Dom is Lucas's clone, and the brain implants provide the avenue for a mind merger which will give Lucas a second chance at life. As he struggles to preserve his autonomy, Dom questions all his beliefs about the society he's been raised in.