As America approaches its tricentennial celebration, the flagging world power faces seemingly insurmountable challenges. The accelerated rise in sea levels forces the United States to spend trillions of dollars to save New York City from the encroaching water. Miami is now a city of canals. The Texas Republic seceded back in 2056, and momentum is building for a federation of Western states to follow suit.

VirtLife, a popular virtual reality universe, has taken over society, with people using it to escape from the challenges of real life. Eight teenagers participate in an intervention program at Yosemite National Park aimed at helping them break their addiction to the all-consuming technology.

While in the park, two members of the group witness the detonation of a powerful and devasting electromagnetic pulse that wreaks havoc and kills thousands. Upon waking up in the hospital, the two individuals experience bizarre symptoms--a brief period of transcendent euphoria, followed by uncontrollable fits of laughter. These laugh attacks spread throughout the world faster than any contagion in human history.

While human civilization grapples with these unprecedented challenges, members of the VirtLife program meet a mysterious yet fascinating individual from a prehistoric civilization who offers a solution to the world's problems: work together with them to save the planet and change their destructive ways in exchange for a cure to the deadly contagion.

Failure to cooperate could result in the extinction of humanity.