An old friend presents Mike Erikson with an irresistible mystery to solve -- far out in the California desert, a team of DARPA scientists has invented a device that shrinks distances so that a traveler can travel hundreds of feet with a single step but evidence is mounting that this miraculous machine isn't quite what it seems--and that its creators are harboring a dangerous secret.

Grief-stricken over his partner Sydney's death, Gavin sets fire to every reminder in the couple's home before fleeing Los Angeles for New Jersey. There he hopes to find peace with the family of an old friend. Joan, the family's ten-year-old daughter, was born Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM: the rare ability to recall every day of her life in cinematic detail. She knew Sydney, and her uncanny mind contains startlingly vivid memories...

On a two-day train trip to enter his invention in the National Science Competition in Washington, D.C., fourteen-year-old Steven "Steel" Trapp, possessor of a remarkable photographic memory, becomes embroiled in an international plot of kidnapping and bribery that may have links to terrorists.