A depressed Campbell Hayden nurses a few ales in a Sackets Harbor pub ten miles out of Watertown, New York. After last call, the twenty-nine-year-old leaves the bar and disappears into a whiteout blowing off Lake Ontario. Ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Campbell starts a new life in a multi-hued barrio where a person can live comfortably unnoticed. Campbell settles in quickly, having spent an entire life as an invisible - "It's not that people can't see me," Campbell reveals, "mostly they just don't...While it is human nature to want to shine, or to prostrate or prostitute oneself in order to achieve notice, or even to garner a glimmer of envy in the eyes of family or friends, I've accepted that such self-illuminating strivings, at least for me, are folly. I am invisible."

Campbell's otherwise ascetic life in the barrio is dramatically transformed by several incidents. In response to these affronts, Campbell devises a plan to become visible, and accepts that substantial physical, emotional, and interpersonal life-style changes will be necessary in order to be seen. Along with these personal sacrifices, Campbell bravely disregards the dangers of standing out in full view. As a stunning, larger-than-life visible, Campbell forges true love, but also creates mortal enemies. Campbell's newfound visibility, love, and enemies cannot coexist - the question is who will survive?