Colter Shaw is an itinerate 'reward-seeker, ' traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. When he learns of a reward for a missing college student in Silicon Valley, he takes the job. The investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of Silicon Valley and the cutthroat billion-dollar video gaming industry, and then a second kidnapping happens, and this victim turns up dead. The clues soon point to one video game in which the player has to survive after being left abandoned. Is a madman bringing that game to life? If so, Shaw has to stop him before he strikes again, and before he figures out that Shaw is on his trail.