Charlotte is a brain that has been saving up for her ideal body for the past ten years. She has her ideal body parts bookmarked and is a month away from finally achieving her dream.

By day, she moves around in a little cart, lies in the darkness of her apartment, does everything she can to save the money necessary to make her big purchase. She goes to work, where her boss allows her to occupy an unattractive masculine body during the day. But this body is not her own: she longs for her own specially-designed vessel with which to explore the infinite potential of humanity. She longs to do cartwheels, press a leaf up to her nose and inhale, pave roads with asphalt and concrete.

At work one day, a newly incorporated body sits next to Charlotte at lunch. Charlotte does not recognize the body at first: it is her friend, Shanti, who decided to take a short-cut to purchase her body instead of waiting until she'd accumulated enough money. Shanti asks Charlotte if she would like her contact for the bargain; Charlotte refuses, knowing that she's close to her dream and would prefer to do things the right way.

Not long after, Charlotte is on the bus riding to work one day when the bus gets into an accident. Charlotte's cart spills, forcing her to go to the hospital and buy a new cart. Her bank account is drained by half; her goal is another five years away.

Desperate, Charlotte reaches out to Shanti for the latter's contact. Charlotte visits a man selling discount bodies. He only has six bodies, none of which match the image that Charlotte had envisioned, but she picks one. She transfer the money to him; he prepares the body for her. As he does so, she realizes that the bodies the man is selling are the bodies of deceased humans. Abhorred, she asks for a refund; he denies her request.

She leaves his apartment building, realizing that as attached as she is to her dream, she'd rather settle for something less than perfect than steal the body of another human being.