As a pager, Peter Mandrin's job is to track things down - criminals, shipments, missing transports, anything that turns a profit - and he's just sacked the catch of a lifetime, infamous embezzler Roger Finlay. As a reward Mandrin wins Finlay's vintage 1960's four bedroom, ranch-style house, complete with sports court and old-fashioned swimming pool, on the most expensive planet in the universe, Earth. From low-life pager, he's hit the sweet, sweet big-time. In Pager two hundred years have passed and a hostile, canyon-like divide has developed between men and women. Marriage is an arcane word, mutual suspicion abounds, and Wallys (artificial life) fill in the emotional void. Up to now, it's just been Peter and his insouciant, sexy Wally, Debris, the replicant woman of his dreams. That is, until he meets the real woman who lives next door, the mysterious Wendy Roseland. Suddenly, Peter's world is upended when he falls head over heels in love with one of his own kind. In Wendy, Peter discovers that the human touch and passions it arouses are greater than anything he imagined. In Wendy's arms, he suddenly feels the ticking clock of his own mortality -- and it frightens him. He wants to be with her forever. But he makes one fatal mistake: Fearing he would repulse Wendy if she found out he was only a tawdry pager he hides it from her. Wendy, it turns out, is wanted. When she discovers that the new love of her life has lied-- just like the others-- she shoots a hole in him the size of a walnut, and then flees the planet. Now Peter has a new mission: one, come back to life, two, track her down, and three, beg her to marry him.
