Til Hagen is a “forward”; he sees the future as clearly as the present. Its reality is not what surrounds us, but what will happen in a couple of minutes. Hagen is able to trace the development of any situation several moves ahead and therefore always chooses the best solution. Intelligence agencies and transnational corporations are hunting for forwards, each of whom is worth an entire analytical department. However, this is not Hagen's problem. Recently, someone begins to exterminate his familiar forwards, and even the gift of foresight does not save them from death. Only a forward can kill a forward - another, stronger one, who sees events further than the victim. To save his life, Til Hagen must get ahead of the killer, but first he needs to find out who his enemy is. And this is the most difficult thing, because all his steps have already been calculated by someone...