In a world dominated by the rich whilst millions starve, and where everyone is conditioned by television, a young IT student, Albert Gordon, invents a program capable of taking control of any operating system. He uses this to make money, but isn’t satisfied with this shallow form of success. He decides to get together a group of hackers and scientists to create a more powerful conditioning tool than advertising and thus take over the world. His aim is to improve humanity by controlling people’s thought processes, but one of his group, Alicia Vikers, hijacks Albert’s power for her own ends, so he is forced to flee, losing touch with his three-year-old son. Albert’s difficult life on the run and his pain at losing his son give rise to a chain of events involving three generations of the Gordon family, whose stories unfold in parallel. It is Albert’s grandson Roger who finally reunites them after finding out who he really is at the age of 18. In spite of the risk of being caught and having his brain re-programmed by the thought police, he eventually manages to find his grandfather, joining forces with him to take back power from Alicia Vikers and free humanity from her extremist de-humanising version of conditioning. Back in charge, it’s up to Roger and Albert to restore freedom and get rid of Viker’s brainwashing devices. But how much conditioning is too much?