American economist, Eliott Gast is a man who treasures the finest things that life can offer - fine food, a good bottle of wine, beautiful music. Until the day that he is abducted in Europe by a shadowy and extremist anti-globalisation group. Eliott is held hostage for forty days, and each moment of his incarceration is broadcast on the internet. His captors inform him that his eventual release depends on the votes - and donations made to their cause - of the millions of people who are watching this most disturbing of reality shows. As Eliott battles to understand why he has been chosen, he unearths sins both small and large. Over the course of his captivity, Eliott is deprived of each of his senses, one by one - deprived of everything except the choice of whether or not to survive.