Jeremiah Arkenton is a dedicated and consummate theoretical scientist, while his wife Kathleen is a technological genius in her own right. Together they have made many breakthroughs for the US government and military while pursuing their own pet projects. They more than anyone, even among their fellow scientists, understand the risk inherent in scientific research, especially when investigations push beyond the boundary of what is known into the unknown, to deliberately probe the limits of what is possible versus what is impossible.

Jeremiah and Kathleen are asked by their good friend Laban Shrewsbury to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a scientist working at the Natural History Museum in Denver, Colorado, at the request of a former student who heads the research department. It turns out to be a classic "locked room" mystery, with the only clue being an enigmatic device that resembles a telescope. The researcher's notes describe it as a "tachyon television", which uses particles that travel faster than light to "see" objects farther away than is possible for any device that relies on normal electromagnetic waves, such as light or radio waves.

To solve the mystery, the couple decide they must activate the device to see what happens. At the same time, they must try to avoid the same fate of the hapless museum scientist.