Under house arrest following his attempted escape from the State, renegade film historian Kevin Quartermain is tasked by the Minister of Communication with deciphering the meaning behind a mysterious video signal that has appeared on the State Communication Channel. He enlists the help of his old friend, archivist George Kaplan, who now exists only as an AI simulation inside the Image Chamber. Their search for answers about the footage leads them back to the birth of cinema itself.

Under house arrest following his attempted escape from the State, renegade film historian Kevin Quartermain is tasked by the Minister of Communication with deciphering the meaning behind a mysterious video signal that has appeared on the State Communication Channel. He enlists the help of his old friend, archivist George Kaplan, who now exists only as an AI simulation inside the Image Chamber. Their search for answers about the footage leads them back to the birth of cinema itself.

An independent filmmaker, researching a film about Dashiell Hammett, comes to Baltimore in search of elusive mystery writer Charles David Hammitt, his consultant on the film, who has gone missing.