A Scanner Darkly.The United States has lost the war on drugs. Substance D, a powerful and dangerous drug that causes bizarre hallucinations, has swept the country. Approximately 20% of the total population is addicted. In response, the government has developed an invasive, high-tech surveillance system and a network of undercover officers and informants. Bob Arctor is one of these undercover agents, assigned to immerse himself in the drug's underworld and infiltrate the supply chain. Sometime in the past, Arctor was abandoned by his wife and two children, leaving him alone in a now-rundown suburban house in Anaheim, California; the house has since been repopulated by Arctor's two drug-addicted, layabout housemates: Luckman and Barris. The three spend their days intoxicated and having long, paranoiac conversations. At the police station, Arctor maintains privacy by wearing a "scramble suit" that constantly changes every aspect of his appearance and he is known only by the code name "Fred." Arctor's senior officer, "Hank", and all other undercover officers, also wear scramble suits, protecting their identities even from each other.

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