The novel opens with protagonist Adam Farmer biking from his home in the fictional town of Monument, Massachusetts, (based on Cormier's hometown of Leominster, Massachusetts) to visit his father in the fictional town of Rutterburg, Vermont. The story alternates with transcripts of tapes between a "subject" and a doctor, Brint. The subject receives psychotherapy and is interrogated by Brint.
As the book continues, it is revealed that Adam is the subject, formerly Paul Delmonte of a small New York town. His father, "David Farmer", was a newspaper reporter who was enrolled in the Witness Protection Program (WPP). The family moved to Monument and escaped several close calls with their identities, but Adam's mother is killed in the penultimate chapter in a car collision, with his father fleeing the scene. Adam/Paul survives and is taken to a government mental asylum. The last chapter implies that WPP agents killed Adam/Paul's father and reveals that Paul is regularly interrogated on the topic. Each time, Paul is unable to handle the realization of his past and embarks on a delusional bike ride across the ground of the facility. At the end of the last tape, Brint recommends that Adam is "terminated" or continued to be questioned.
