When the enigmatic billionaire founder and CEO of Teration, the world's most powerful tech company, is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, he hires failed novelist, Josh Cohen, to ghostwrite his memoirs. This tech mogul, known only as "principle", takes Josh deep into his own mind, and outlines the history of Tetration and outlines the history of Tetration, which started by revolutionizing the search engine and later ventured into smartphones, computer manufacturing, and the surveillance of American citizens. Accompanying Josh on a mind-bending world tour of local Tetration offices for Palo Alto to Dubai, principal soon initiates Josh into the secret pretext of the autobiography project, and the life-or-death stakes that surround its publication.