If you often feel alone, you’re not alone.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Everyone deserves unconditional love.

Loneliness unraveled the world, like a cloud of moths devouring wool. Breaking the weave, leaving black holes. Technology tried to mend it, but humans needed humans. So they devised something new: the emotional support professional. An expert in empathy, trained to absorb agony and return comfort.

Scout loves being an ESP. The duties are easy. The benefits are excellent: a luxurious life in a charming town, with the freedom to do anything she wants— within the perimeter, of course.

But she keeps breaking Rule #1: You can’t fix people’s problems. She just can’t resist, even when the person asking for help is her client’s venomous ex, Anita. Even when enabling Anita’s escape means betraying her cherished client’s trust. Even when that betrayal has terrible consequences for Scout’s fellow ESPs.

Then, with the help of a hologrammatic hamster named Freddy Krueger (her just-a-bit-broken AI companion), Scout discovers why she’s compelled to help, even when it hurts everyone she loves. She flees to a secret reprogramming retreat on Bell Island, a grim red rock off the Newfoundland coast. She wants to become someone different. Someone who cares less. She wants to set things right. Try as she might, she can’t find a way to overcome her own crippling empathy. Then she realizes: Maybe overcoming was never the answer at all.