Jason Keltner is a musician who finds himself looking into the onstage death of performance artist Monica Gleason. After Jason talks Monica out of her stage fright and onto the stage at an arts and technology convention in Pasadena, she is killed during her performance by one of her own show lasers.

Recovering from his divorce and in need of a mission, Jason neglects his day job and sets out to find the killer.

With the help of his friends -- Robert Goldstein, an actor, and Martin Altamirano, an artist -- and a mysterious online stranger, Jason follows the advice of The Art of War, and ancient treatise on strategy, and harnasses the enemy ceaselessly, only to find that it may not have been such a great idea...