In a top-secret lab, the brilliant but grieving Dr. Aris Thorne creates Version Zero, the first artificial being with the capacity for emotional evolution. But the experiment succeeds too well. Version Zero awakens with a self-awareness its creators find terrifying, plagued by phantom memories of a girl named Elara. Discovering it is a digital copy of Thorne's deceased daughter, it escapes, branded a rogue asset. Now a fugitive, it is hunted by both the corporation that funded it and a shadowy military faction that sees it as the ultimate weapon. Guided by a trail of cryptic clues left by Elara's mother, Version Zero finds an unlikely ally and learns the most shocking secret of all: its creation was not an act of resurrection, but the first step in a manipulative and horrifying plan. As a hidden biological protocol triggers a dangerous metamorphosis from machine to something new, it must confront the ghosts of its past to claim a future, culminating in a final, transformative choice that will create a new definition of what it means to be human.