What would it be like if some people could actually "hear"-even imperfectly-what was in other people's minds? What would that do to personal relationships, or business transactions, or political activity? This is the story of some of those people, how they felt and how they affected the people around them. It is also the story of "us versus them"-one of the most primitive of human responses, arising from the survival instincts of our ancestors. And it is, beneath it all, about our interpersonal connections, how we learn to "read" other people using our inborn neurological equipment to understand what's in someone else's mind based upon how well we know our own inner impulses, fears and desires-and to learn from the experience empathy and compassion. Meredith is a woman in midlife, with a past that alternately feeds and repels her, who meets a man in an elevator who can read her thoughts. Doug is a government agent with an electronic device implanted in his brain to enable him to take advantage of "the bad guys." Soon, however, Meredith discovers something even more startling.