The year is 2044 - and Bobby Hayes has a world-changing secret. Discarded from birth as something broken and not quite right, he's a powerful psychic with the ability to read people's true thoughts and emotions. But after a devastating house fire claims his life at the age of 9, Bobby is forced to project his powerful mind onto his best friend. With his family dead, he becomes trapped as an incorporeal shadow, capable of jumping hosts - and he escapes his sheltered upbringing to discover a world on the brink of collapse.

An Orwellian regime rules America... and it wants him gone. Hunted by a clandestine agency and aided by his only friend - a sentient AI - Bobby becomes determined to avert catastrophe. But with each new host, he discovers more about the complexities of the human condition... and he's forced to question how far he's willing to go to achieve his goals.

Can a shadow do what no human ever could? And will his gifts in the end turn out to be a blessing - or a terrible curse?