It's the third decade of the twenty-first century, and Christmas and Easter have become merely "Winter Holiday" and "Spring Holiday." Halloween now eclipses all other events as the nation's number one festival. October 31 is also an annual law enforcement holiday of sorts, when vandals, muggers, arsonists, and a variety of petty criminals are accorded virtually free license. Spiritism is on the rise. Computer technology has advanced to where the creation of a cruel artificial intelligence is within man's grasp. Against this shadowy backdrop, young Judge Neal McBride opens the case of the State of Ohio versus Roger V. Larrabee -- and suddenly finds himself, his wife, and his stepson the targets of a powerful and ruthless enemy.