Thomas Veil – quite literally – loses his identity one night over dinner and begins to mentally unravel when he discovers his wife is part of whatever's happening. Placed in a sanitarium, he slowly realizes that he's actually the victim of a massive conspiracy connected to a photograph he took entitled "Hidden Agenda".

Attempting to avert his unknown attackers, Veil uses Dr. Bellamy's driver's license and credit cards as he sets out on a desperate search for answers to who has stripped away his entire life. Before long, he's presumed to be the missing Bellamy, tracked down and taken to the enemy's headquarters for Western Operations. There, "Dr. Bellamy" is instructed to make one of their subjects, Ellen Combs, comply with the same "conditioning" procedure administered to Veil.

In his search for why someone wants the negative of "Hidden Agenda", Veil enlarges it and detects details that lead him to a remote Georgian town to seek more answers. There, he happens upon a traveling sideshow starring Derek, a blind 10-year-old billed as "The Boy Psychic", who reveals ominous news about Veil's pursuers.

Classified as the unknown enemy's first priority, the elusive Veil is apprehended and submitted into a chemically-induced hallucinatory state in which his attackers have complete control over his sense of time and space. Within their 'lab' setting, actors and elaborate sets are employed to convince Veil he's been in a loving relationship with a woman to whom he'll soon divulge the sought-after information.

After getting a job in a small-town photo shop, Veil is stunned to glimpse a picture of his wife Alyson as he processes a customer's film. He frantically pursues that customer to question where she shot the picture, but the chase lands him in New Phoenix, a haven for the disenfranchised and community of those who have, for one reason or another, lost their identity at the hands of the mysterious enemy.