Solve for X? What a horrible task to assign to an English teacher! Yancey Phillips, murdered outside her 24th Century classroom, finds an impossible problem on her hands: How can one be DEAD but not dead? Parties as yet unknown snatch Yancey before she reaches the oblivion she expects death to bring. She lands on an alien planet--Planet X, in fact. Quite a challenge for a dead woman! At least her "deadpan" sense of humor transports with her! Launching her on a mind-boggling quest in this alternate reality, the aliens require Yancey to search for an unexpected x-factor. She must seek the unknown quantity she missed from her life's equation as she lived it back on Earth. Yancey's journey to a mystery-city called Leapside exposes her to danger, an arch-enemy, aliens big and small, a lost love, and...eventually...to understanding.