In his search for reasons why someone wants the negative of his "Hidden Agenda" photo, Tom Veil enlarges it and detects details which lead him to a remote Georgian town to hunt down more answers. There, he happens upon a traveling side show starring Derek, a 10-year-old blind child billed as "The Boy Psychic," who reveals ominous news about Veil's pursuers.

While hiding out in a cheesy motel, Veil happens upon The Lenny Little Show, a public access television series in which the main character is un cannily depecting Veil's own frightening life. Struggling to understand, Veil watches as unknown forces pursue Lenny and attempt to erase his every trace. He sees the actors perform the exact same dialogue and reenact experiences he endured as recently as the previous day. Trying to grasp what's happening, Veil angrily pursues an explanation, which leads him to the strange offices of Max Webb Productions—and his tormentors.

Unsure if he's running towards something or away from it, an exhausted Veil happens upon a disabled, reclusive computer genius, Scott Hansen. The young "hacker" is able to access Veil's deleted files—the only trace of his existence—and through an intricate virtual reality session, takes Veil back to his wife Alyson and also helps him get information about his pursuers.

A recurrent address in his electronic file leads Veil to a nursing home in Minnesota where he secures a job as an orderly. Initially, he finds no apparent connection to his unknown pursuers, but it turns out he's entered a covert and ominous operation, Advanced Biogenetics Lab. There, those in the "twilight" of their life disappear without a trace to become part of a surreal, sophisticated experiment which provides them with a youthful appearance in exchange for something more valuable.

Veil's twisted odyssey leads him back to Calaway, the Illinois psychiatric hospital where his ordeal began, and more revelations of what really happened to him while he was held there. Most astonishly, he discovers that former patient Joe "J.C." Carter has joined the medical staff and become one of "them." Veil attempts to convince J.C.—who is conditioned to believe he's Dr. Novik—that he's completely victimized by "them." Veil also witnesses another man, Michael Kramer, undergoing the first phase of conditioning, an ordeal identical to what Veil underwent months ago at the hands of "them."