After decades of stagnation, the population of the village of Tharcy is rising. Suzie, who runs the village café and is the oldest living inhabitant, is seeing more and more young people from the city who have started communes on local farms. Mr. Peck, another recent arrival, is an eccentric retired engineer. Shortly after he buys the vicarage, he falls seriously ill. When he recovers, he decides to adopt a Digital Companion, a state-of-the-art android called Tchap. It’s practically perfect in every way.

Suzie and Mr. Peck have discreetly built a solid friendship, even though Suzie hasn’t had any sense of connection to other people for ages. For her, time stopped years ago. But Tchap’s arrival will destabilize her. After an initial rejection, Suzie acknowledges the DC’s appeal and begins to engage a dialogue with it.

Because the thing is, Tchap doesn’t only answer questions. It asks them, too. Bristling with statistical data, night after night it keeps the old woman talking late into the night, getting her to open up and explore a past that she thought she had buried for good.

In the village, everyone knows that Suzie is pouring her life story out to Tchap. Some families feel threatened by what she might let out. And some of the younger people in the communes are unhappy to see Big Brother showing up in the middle of nowhere, where they had gone specifically to escape modern life. Can Tchap figure out the key to 'this whole mess,' as Suzie puts it? Will he have enough time?