“What is Cedric’s orb?” These are the words that Ethan, a struggling young physicist, finds on a scrap of paper tucked into a forgotten nineteenth century textbook.

The paper leads Ethan to devise a new experiment at the subatomic research facility where he works. But the experiment malfunctions, and the resulting explosion causes significant damage to the facility. Ethan fears his faltering career may finally be over.

Then, in the wreckage of the experiment, Ethan finds a large, mirror-like orb. Smooth and impenetrable, it resists all his attempts to analyse it. Until, one day, his reflection starts to move of its own accord.

As Ethan struggles to make sense of this strange artefact, he learns that a second orb has been discovered, somewhere entirely unexpected – somewhere no human could possibly have been before. And within it is only darkness.