Dirk Gently

Accompanied by MacDuff, Dirk returns to St Cedd's Institute of Science and Technology, Cambridge, from which he had been expelled for cheating, as his former mentor Professor Jericho has asked for his help in guarding Elaine, a sophisticated robot named after his daughter, used in his research into artificial intelligence. When Elaine is stolen, Dirk investigates seeing Jericho's colleague Emelda as the prime suspect. MacDuff meanwhile is tempted to leave Dirk's agency as his girlfriend, Susan, has applied for a job in Cambridge.

Dirk's client David Edwards is found dead after claiming that the Pentagon are out to kill him. His widow hires Dirk to catch the murderer, telling him that her husband was working on top secret computer software which could spell danger if it fell into the wrong hands. Dirk believes there is a connection with his other client, Emma Reynolds' philandering husband Oliver, obsessed with the fact that his horoscopes keep coming true. Having shown that the horoscopes are a fraud Dirk sets out to find the real reason for Edwards' murder.