 If the truth of the world violated natural law and contradicted a lifetime of teaching, would it be received as fact or fiction? Myles Goddard is pondering that question. Senate intern at the nation s capitol, he is the 24th individual exposed to the Liresept virus, recent biological agent thrown randomly into the public. He awakens in a military hospital under the care of Dr. Beverly Mathias and awaits diagnosis of the general strain, which is treatable with antibiotics. But the major threat is the deadly strain 51, requiring quarantine because of its side effects. The brain imaging gives all indication of strain 51, but the diagnosis is clinical and can only be affirmed by what Myles says. Dr. Mathias and her assistant Wyndham scrutinize his return to consciousness and find that he indeed has the side effect: the side of effect of omniscience.