When Matt Valt 'stumbles' upon a beat up coffee maker in an old warehouse, he instinctively knows it is special. The kind of special that will change his life. The kind of special that is out of this world. The kind of special that is out of this Universe.
So begins his descent into madness and exultation.
He spends years in secrecy, research, and crippling debt. Matt finally discovers a way to converse with Observer, the alien entity on the other side of the indestructible coffee maker. An alien intelligence as odd as It is dispassionate. An alien agent with a strange 'fetish' for understanding the human condition.
Stumbling and rising back up time and time again, Matt manages to take away with him a few discoveries that change his life completely. Truths that reveal to him what spot in the cosmic hierarchy humanity places. Revelations that allow him to turn both his life and that of humanity in general, around.
As he uses this alien connection he slowly changes the world around him. Some of these gifts he obtains are freely given by Observer; slowly offered and metered through caution and caveats. Others he takes without permission... and must in consequence deal with the aftermath of his willfulness.
The question is, at what cost does scientific advance come? When we rush to exploit unknown and unmastered technology and sciences, what doors do we open? As hubris and greed wage war within Matt's soul, he and humanity finally discover that the cost of doing business with an uncaring and unfeeling alien intelligence may be more than they bargained for.