In the near future, a young woman finds her mother's body on the kitchen floor in Queens and sets on a journey through language, archives, artificial intelligence, and TV for a way back into herself. She begins to translate an old manuscript about a group of female medical students-- living through a drought and at the edge of the war-- as they create a new way of existence to help the people around them. In the process, the translator's life and the manuscript begin to become entangled. A childhood friend, a stranger, and an unusual AI project will force her to question her own moral compass and sense of goodness. -- adapted from jacket