Private Investigator Cyrus Smithe's life has just taken a turn for the worse — his partner, Harry Weston, is dead. The cops are out to pin it on him, and the only solid proof he has to clear himself is a tiny gadget that could grant ten million sentient robots their freedom: the Medusa Key. Robot detectives, gorilla thugs, French gangsters and Russian mobsters heat things up as Cy Smithe and Kate Weston track her father's killer through a sea of double and triple crosses to find the elusive piece of technology that's the key to the mystery.