Top TV reporter Max Edison discovers Network 23 is experimenting with advertising that is lethal to some viewers. His boss tries to kill him and copy his mind to a controllable simulation. Instead Edison survives - and Max Headroom is born.
While Max attempts to fill the many gaps in his and Edison's memory, a young woman goes missing, revealing the shadowy world of involuntary organ donation.
The CEO of Security Systems, the world's largest security center, fears there may be danger behind the possible purchase of her company by an unknown buyer.
Edison and the Network 23 team are dumbfounded when a lesser rival network appears to be always at the scenes of recent terrorist attacks for the big ratings-drawing exclusives.