From the author of When Franny Stands Up comes a genre-bending story told in linked obituaries and newsfeeds over three hundred years about one AI woman grappling with her grief after the mysterious death of her human daughter, and wondering what it really means to be human.

What will it take for the death of Poppy Fletcher to make sense?

Poppy Fletcher dies too young, and the entire world is eager to accept it and move on. Except for her mother, who is no ordinary mother. She is Peregrine, an AI woman walking the earth, a fugitive loathed and misunderstood by the very people who aided in and benefitted from her creation. As more details emerge about Poppy's death, the facts add up less and less.

The story of Poppy and Peregrine spans several centuries of obituaries, and reveals a planet slowly dying, a world increasingly disconnected, and the consequences of ego and greed. The lives, deaths, and grief of others throughout history uncover not only what happened to Poppy, but a tale of art and love, betrayal and redemption - and ultimately, what it means to be alive.