When John Klein returns to Detroit following his time in the Navy, he discovers his family is gone. While he searches for them, Klein takes a job at a mysterious factory called Phlogiston Fabricating. While working there, Klein meets and falls in love with the enigmatic Candice. Without warning nor explanation, she vanishes. Some time later, a second woman named Candice appears at Phlogiston Fabricating. She looks and acts and sounds exactly like the first Candice. But is she? Where did the first Candice go? What exactly are they making at Phlogiston Fabricating? The increasingly-desperate steps that Klein takes to try to learn the truth brings him to the attention of Detroit Police Homicide detective, Christopher Garvin. Along with his long-time partner, George Hofmann, Garvin tries to piece the story together. Hofmann and Garvin unravel the mysteries of the last case they will ever work.