Frank Gobi, professor of "transcultural corporate anthropology and organizational shamanism," a former "consciousness detective," is called in when Satori City, or "Virtualopolis," an online burg the size of Manhattan, crashes, stranding thousands of users, including Gobi's teenage son, Trevor. Behind the crash are the shenanigans of two Japanese megacorporations struggling over a Tibetan program, "Tantrix," that could make all of reality virtual. Gobi enters into virtuality to triumph over a virus that takes the form of Tibetan zombies and make the world safe for unreality.