The year is 2084. America is laboring under a vast reconstruction plan designed to rebuild the cities and bring the country out of a long depression. All hard copy records are declared illegal and computers are the only source of information, a source that can be manipulated to distort the facts and hide the truth to promote treason. Hank Rittemeyer is a New York City Police Detective who has learned to live with the stifling rules and regulations brought about by restrictive laws imposed throughout the country. During a routine burglary investigation he discovers an error in the police computer when the suspect, Colin O'Riley, is erased from the computers. He sets out to find him and enlists O'Riley's lawyer and the burglar's sister. They learn that the rule of law has been corrupted into a conspiracy to deny justice in an attempt to turn America's citizens into sheep who blindly follow the new lords of conquest. Colin O'Riley is one of the victims of this new found tyranny. As in the tyrannies of the past this new one, that hides under the cover of due process and lawful restriction, also uses treachery, kidnapping, and murder to gain its evil end.