Greg lives in a world controlled by the Cowl, a group of government officials who control nearly every aspect of society. It is a world where most people live out of reality - connecting themselves to anaesthesia, living in dreams for the duration of their lives. But everything changes when Pat Nichols, the beautiful woman that he loves dearly, runs away to join the Venusian Colonists - an outlaw group who refuses to take the anaesthesia, hell-bent on traveling by spaceship to Venus. Greg decides to unhook himself for a total of 72 hours, to go on a rescue mission. But in order to rescue Pat, he must traverse through the dangerous Outside, where dangers are lying in wait. There is war, violence, killer tentacle plants, and destruction. And there is the constant threat that if he succumbs to these urges, and if he refuses the anaesthesia, Greg might become one of the psychos, suffering through schizophrenia, before he can convince Pat to come back home.