Dave's agreement with Doc and Sally is to help the two adventurous scientists disappear into the future. But being left behind by the closest people Dave has to family isn't the bargain the eighteen-year-old expected. When Dave follows after his mentors, calibration issues place him centuries past his target date. Countless years and miles of wilderness separate him from Doc and Sally. Dave must survive in a primitive new world that has been waiting for him for a very . . . long . . . time . . .

Less than forty years into the future, most of mankind has elected to upload themselves to digital nirvana, where they can live as many lives as they care to in parallel, in as many different fantasy worlds as they desire. A small percentage of humans, however, are loath to give up the mortal coil. These last holdouts are the escapees from the future. The question is, for how long? Will Mother, the sentient internet, be content with gentle prodding to upgrade and uplift? Or will she resort to more coercive means? Has she already, unbeknownst to the final holdouts?