When Sachem Laggerveld meets Bo and Rinx to drink some hooch beneath the stad, he jeopardizes his place on the LeaderTrack and his chance to become a Health Care Hero. Even worse, by violating the Committee for Public Health and Safety rules, he may have caused the latest annual pandemic, COVID 40, to be the worst one in history.

Sachem's infraction sets in motion a string of mishaps as his day spins wildly out of control. Showing up late for Calisthenics turns out to be the highlight of his day. Before it's through, Sachem faces a Human Health Crisis in his Regional Regional Health Center Lab and a conflict with his Shift Supervisor. This results in an insub on his ROCK, a ride on the Fieldspark wave, and imprisonment in a cell in the basement of the Leadership Block.

Things take a sinister turn when he falls under the influence of Duncan, a mercurial District Leader, who enlists Sachem's assistance in a plot to uncover a Malcontent Cell in the Radion Group Plant. In short order however, he discovers that not all is as it seems, that everything he has been taught is a lie, and that he carries with him a secret which may well shatter the very foundation of his world.