To combat loneliness and a collapsing birth rate, the government created the National Companionship Initiative. An algorithm has assigned you a live-in girlfriend: Madeline Kelsi, a sardonic goth woman who enrolled for debt relief and free housing. She arrives with two suitcases, a state handbook, and an official document declaring you “highly compatible.” Madeline hates being treated like government property, but she is curious whether the algorithm actually got something right.