The victim of a government experiment to create superintelligent humans learns the cause of the strange dreams he has been having—and that he will self-destruct by his 21st birthday unless he finds the scientist who ""created"" him by implanting a chip in his brain. He becomes a fugitive when he and Maria, a girl who crashed his 20th birthday party, are accused of killing another ""cyb"" actually shot by a government agent named Winston, bent on tracking down all the cybs and killing them. Ed's only hope for survival is a doctor who worked on the project, Victor Heisenberg.

Ed and Maria's feelings for each other are tested after partying with a surfer and his friends.

Ed prepares to give himself up when Winston kidnaps his mother, but Maria suspects a trap.