A dying doctor refuses to believe that her patient cannot remember the last 25 years of his life. In the middle of a ferocious firefight outside of Baghdad, soldiers discover a mysterious body they can't identify as human. The seventh-richest couple in the world are anthropoids - each containing a few strands of human DNA, grown into a baby and fused with plastics. Despised minorities are adrift in the darkness of outer space and make an ominous pact that they hope will bring them back to Earth. Flying robotic droids can prevent murder before it takes place, but life depends on a formula of carefully balanced killing. Frendon must find a way to convince an automated justice machine of his innocence.