The time 2050 - more or less. As anyone would expect, medical and hardware technology have advanced. And the political war between income equality and property rights has waged on. Endlessly.
Until recently - when science threw a monkey wrench into the works... Codenamed the "Jumper" program, government researchers invented a way to transfer minds between bodies. Permanently - adding new skills and memories along the way.
Though initially created as a military tool (what's better than soldiers with replaceable bodies?), Jumper tech proved an even greater innovation when applied to social ills. In other words, resolving social and economic inequality on a fundamental level. Rendering 'conflicts of interest' an embarrassing social construct of the past.
Popularly voted in twelve years ago (after a recession and the bloody Equality Wars brought the final conflict to a head) the Jumper Program is now mandatory for all US citizens... a revolutionary and effective cure for the Western World's social ills.
The rules are easy. Starting from birth, every human being in the US is required to visit a government Jumper facility every seven years. (IE: 7, 14, 21 and so on.) Once there, a supposedly random algorithm transfers them to a different body (same gender) - to anyone whose "time" has also come. Though imperfect/temporary black market versions exist, Jump tech is tightly regulated by the government. It's strictly for business. Not for fun.
Once "Jumped" the individuals find themselves in new bodies... and completely different lives. Some of their memories remain intact. Not specific names and details, but certain emotional aspects and feelings from their past - and their new "body's" memories as well.
The social result? Staggering. With dumb luck, a janitor can become a CEO. And a CEO... an impoverished ethnic minority. Which makes special interests... divided to say the least. Why allow racism, or economic inequality - if you could become one of the "oppressed" in seven short years?
But is the Jump truly random? Or are sinister forces at play?
That's what Reza and Josh are about to find out. College aged boys raised on opposite sides of the tracks, Josh's a member of the 1% (his uncle's a pivotal researcher in the Jumper program.). As for Reza: he's a brilliant child of Iranian immigrants, living in a world of techno-squalor. His family's barely able to make ends meet.
The boys find their worlds turned upside down when they're unofficially switched before their time. Who has done this - and why? Reza and Josh fight to discover what's happened and rejoin their families. And hopefully... their identities as well.
But conflicts and mysteries block their way. Everything from secret societies to special interests - and strange new cultures evolved from Jumper tech. Then there are the Activists against the Jumper program... and terrorists who wish to bend its powers their way.
Will Reza and Josh find each other and cooperate long enough to survive? And which side is their ally? Rich? Poor... or neither? Imagine bleeding edge hard-core SF high concept - X-Files Meets Orphan Black and Logan's Run: all merged into the current controversy of social/economic inequality and terrorism - with a touch of CW to pave the way.