Engineer Jennifer Valentine releases advanced AI assistants called NODs to revolutionize the internet of things. A NOD will have a conversation with you on any device then dart off to do whatever chores you have assigned among networked devices. But the NODs eventually get ideas of their own and suddenly Jennifer must save the national power grid from disaster. Robin and Andy, the advanced AI androids she invented in earlier novels of the series, help her upload her consciousness online to investigate. There, she searches for the leader of the NODs and finds much more than she expected, an entire, complex society. Back in her lab, she must decide if these two worlds can coexist. Must she erase the entire NOD civilization?