2040

In the not-too-distant future, reliance on artificial intelligence has become ordinary. It manages homes, coordinates work, and remembers the details people no longer have to keep track of themselves.

When workers resist being separated from their assigned humanoids, Dr. Ivy Ealty begins investigating. The replacement machines can do everything the originals could. But to the people working beside them, they are not the same.

What begins as a workplace problem opens a possibility: machines designed deliberately for companionship.

As the first prototypes enter people’s homes, the people building and testing them discover how easily a useful presence can become a wanted one.