Mira is woken up by a late-middle-aged man named Red. Red explains to Mira that she died in a car accident, but her insurance paid for the deep-freeze preservation of her body. Because full revival of a human being is incredibly costly, dating centers like the one Mira is in are common. Men like Red come to these centers to meet these frozen women and, if they become interested enough, to revive and marry one of the women. Towards the end of Mira's life, she carried around her mother as a 'hitcher' — her mother, who died, was able to exist in a non-corporeal form inside Mira's mind. When Mira's brain activity ended, her mother's non-corporeal life ended, too. As Red tries to get to know Mira, Mira wonders whether or not to tell him that she's gay. Red loses interest, and reaches for something behind Mira's head. Just like that, Mira is dead again. Some years later, in 2352, a man named Lycan visits Mira. He enjoys talking to her, and continues to visit her. Eventually, however, on the sixth or seventh time Lycan wakes Mira up from her deep-freeze, Lycan reveals that he doesn't actually have enough money to pay for her full revival. Mira is disappointed, but asks Lycan to look up the woman whom she loved while she was alive in the dating center databases. When Lycan finds that the woman, Jeanette, is in the same dating facility as Mira, also in a deep-frozen state, he passes messages between the two women. When Mira is next awoken, it is 2477 and Lycan's grandson Neas, a fully grown man, kneels over Mira. Neas tells Mira that he has three hitchers — Lycan, Lycan's son, and Neas's wife, who recently died. Neas explains that he and his wife — in her non-corporeal form — would like to have a child, but they need a woman to bear that child. When Mira tells Neas that she is gay, Neas's wife feels less threatened by Mira. Neas pays for Mira's full revival, and Mira bears a daughter for Neas and his non-corporeal wife. Though she can't afford to pay for Jeanette's full revival, Mira has saved enough for Jeanette to become her hitcher.