THE LISTENER tells the story of Chris, a mid twenties drug addict who wakes up one day to find he's abruptly free of any drug symptoms. His skin is replenished, his cravings and withdrawals are suddenly nonexistent. His sense of hearing also seems to improve daily, and soon Chris develops a sense of even seeing what he hears. He receives in the mail an audio message recorded anonymously that informs him on a series of events, the secret of two engineering rivals racing to create an ultimate cure of disease that would bring the medicinal age to an end, and how Chris would become inevitably involved in a personal experiment gone haywire.