On Election Day 2020, voter turnout in the United States is at an all-time low, along with public confidence in the government as a whole. Philanthropist Alexander Soren decides to capitalize on this growing swell of popular dissatisfaction by launching a radical new project: a Parallel Congress. Composed of ordinary men and women selected at random from the entire population of the country, it is a statistically perfect representation of all the various backgrounds and opinions that make up American society. Unlike its elected counterpart, it is a young, vigorous institution. Millionaires and lawyers are almost absent from its ranks. Its members are untainted by allegations of voter fraud or connections to special interests. They are representatives of the populace, responsible only to their fellow citizens.

Political parties and advocacy groups, even those that previously clamored for greater citizen involvement in government, hurry to denounce the Parallel Congress, seeing it as a threat to their control of the political process. They question its commitment to democracy, and whether you can have democracy at all without elections. Retired statesmen reject its offers to serve as the first Parallel President. Scorned by the elite, but supported by the force of popular opinion, the Parallel Congress turns to legislation. It balances the budget, restructures the tax system, and launches a new national energy policy in a matter of weeks. Every decision it makes is a mathematical expression of the views held by the greatest number of Americans. More importantly, its success begins to raise the question of what gives a government legitimacy: tradition, succession, and heritage? Or popularity?