In this futuristic world, there are two versions of reality: clean and dirty. Dirty is the real world, which has been taken over by bacteria and viruses that can no longer be treated with modern medicine. Clean is the response to this dirty world that humanity had to flee from. It is a virtual reality, where Salipa accesses her avatar through an immersion ball in her assigned cubicle in dirty. Her partner Telo does the same.

Salipa works in a laboratory geared toward reentry, studying how birds spread the viruses back in dirty. When one of her robots malfunctions and accidentally kills some of her birds, she has to enter the dirty world to fix it. She does this in the comfort of a camouflaged bioball so as not to come into contact with anything harmful.

After she fixes the robot, another camouflaged bioball speeds into hers and breaches it, letting in contaminated air. It is her coworker, Alicia, and her ball is breached too. They must both go back to their cubicles to be decontaminated, but before they can, Alicia lines up the cracks and touches Salipa's hand. This is the first time Salipa has been touched since birth. They both return, stage 5 contaminated, and cannot reenter dirty until after they quarantine. When the two go back to work together in clean, Alicia kisses Salipa, then logs out of her avatar.

Salipa and her partner Telo are programmed to have a baby. They only interact in clean, but Salipa confides in him about her potential infection from dirty. She does not tell him about the kiss. He isn't worried, though she thinks he should be. Touch in the virtual world isn't satisfying her anymore.

Finally, through Alicia, Salipa accidentally discovers a way to meet Telo in person. He doesn't look much like his avatar, but he feels so much better to her. They touch and touch, their need for human contact too much to ever stop.