Pop star Jason Taverner is the product of a top-secret government experiment that produced a selection of genetically enhanced people forty years ago. Unusually bright and beautiful, he's a television idol beloved by millions—until one day, all records of his identity inexplicably disappear. Overnight, he has gone from being a celebrity to a man whom no one seems to recognize. And in a police state, having no proof of his existence is enough to put his life in danger.

As Jason races to solve the riddle of his disappearance, Philip K. Dick immerses us in an Orwellian atmosphere of betrayal, secrecy, and conspiracy—a world in which everyone informs on everyone else and omniscient police have something to hide. Painting a horribly plausible portrait of a neofascist America, he explores the meaning of identity and reality in a world skewed by drugs, genetic enhancement, and a culture of celebrity. His bleakly beautiful novel bores into the deepest bedrock self and plants a stick of dynamite at its center.