Society has collapsed, but a massive, automatic product-manufacturing plant continues to operate according to the principles of consumerism -- humans must consume products to be happy, but to consume, they must be denied freedom of choice and free will. When a small band of humans decide to shut down the factory for good, they discover they may actually be the perfect consumers after all.
When 15-year-old Foster moves from the small town to the big futuristic city, she's consumed with paranoia and fear by the urban society's emphasis on security and terrorist prevention. It isn't long before she turns to a friendly "tech support" voice for guidance and companionship... but is the voice real, or just the product of her own increasingly irrational delusions?
Norton is a discontented tour guide of a cruise ship in space. His life is on a one way trip to nothingness until he meets the supernaturally old Irma. She wants to go to Earth; a planet long since destroyed. On this epic journey, Norton and Irma develop a deep connection that's just as impossible as the planet for which they are searching.