Starting from Zero explores in fiction a subject more commonly treated in non-fiction—the individual quest for self-awareness and understanding—what Gurdjieff calls "being consciousness." It is the story of American photographer Asher Bowden and his search for a wisdom teacher known as Tyco Brey, who just might help him find the path. While at heart a psychological study set in a time of political turmoil in Colombia, the novel also examines the social conditions that impinge upon our collective psyche—for inevitably the search for greater individual consciousness is a search for a consciousness of the whole. In his attempts to find Tyco Brey, Asher encounters some of the teacher's friends and students, who give voice to aspects of the teaching long before Asher discovers Tyco Brey. From them, Asher learns that "you puzzle yourself together." He becomes a teacher to himself.