Aging reporter Greg Conway (Robert Webber) suspects his fellow anchor Arthur Desmond (John Randolph) has been replaced with a double. In spite of protests from his producer Linda Beckwith (Mary Frann) and network head Bill Bellamy (Richard Anderson), Greg continues to investigate and discovers that the network has replaced Desmond and several others with computer simulations, while the real people are allowed to live out their lives in luxury. Despite his initial reluctance, Conway is persuaded into allowing a simulation of him to take over his career and allow him to follow his dreams of traveling the world, getting married, and writing a novel. As he prepares to leave for Paris, Bellamy has him abducted and reveals that he must keep Conway imprisoned so that the network can sustain the illusion. Bellamy then leaves as Conway futilely begs him not to. A man (Lawrence Pressman) discovers his crystal radio is in contact with the U-Boat that sunk his father’s ship in World War II.