What if numbers really mattered? Solar explosions known as "The Pulse" have rendered all electronics useless and sent Mankind back to a pre-digital age. In St Petersburg, Alexi, an aging Russian professor of mathematics with a tragic past, stumbles on two truths: the first, the oppressive regime has been lying to the people, and the second is that, with sufficient energy, reality can be split in two. Alexi finds himself in a parallel ultra-modern St Petersburg, with the possibility of combining his two separate worlds — and his shattered family.