The Year is 2013, and Zac Robillard is on the run...with five stolen I-Bots. A brilliant inventor working for WorldTech Corporation, he had singlehandedly orchestrated the next step in robotic evolution by developing these amazing cybernetic creatures, who combine the strength and nobility of robots with the emotional and psychological complexity of humans. But then he discovered WorldTech's hidden agenda -- to use his precious creations as killers for hire. Now Zac and the I-Bots are caught in a lethal game of cat-and-mouse with WorldTech's owner, Annabelle Donahoe, who pursues them with a fierce determination that borders on psychological obsession.

At the heart of the story are the I-Bots themselves: Psy-4, their brooding leader; the beautiful and vain Radiant, capable of manipulating all forms of energy; Itazura, the warrior jokester; Killaine, the group's reluctant mother figure; and Stonewall, the quietest and strongest I-Bot.