"Mery's invention of the Global Un-Manifested (GUM) machine is to inspire an entirely new branch of science fiction". -- J.G. Eccarius

It's hard for Abelard to keep secrets from his anima Kahani in their tiny apartment overlooking the canyon of Valles Marineris on Mars. Kahani is mad about his infatuation with Pyrexia, a cosmic female sex deity Abelard accidentally ran into while strapped into the Global Un-Manifested (GUM) machine. The GUM is the main form of entertainment of their civilization and usually sends them back to experience historic earth's New York City or Paris. Abelard is also having a lot of trouble keeping out of debt by working on the Linked Lattice at Large (or LLL) terminal, the ultimate evolutionary appliance of the Internet. His memory seems to be playing tricks on him, his very life seems to be splintering, not unlike the lives of the 20th century bohemian characters the GUM machine allows him to inhabit on earth.