An employee (whose gender is never revealed) works at a company that keeps people cryogenically suspended after they die. They have become obsessed with one of the company’s former clients—a young woman who died of pancreatic cancer in her late twenties—much younger than the company’s typical patients.

They hold on to two of the woman’s belongings: a photograph of her, in which she’s laughing and holding a drink, and a note where she’s written “This is as I wish to be restored.” 

A few decades ago, the cryopreservation company had a fiscal crisis and was forced to cut costs. Consequently, the earliest patients—who were suspended using imperfect methods and hence had the least chance of successful revival—were disposed of. The young woman whom the employee loves was supposed to be discarded among this group, but the employee stole her and set up a cryogenic chamber in their own apartment to take care of her.

In the 22nd century, now that scientists have figured out the technology to revive the cryogenically suspended bodies, the employee will have to reveal that they stole this young woman’s suspended body. They expect to be fired after this reveal, but know that the company will be forced to try reviving her once it finds out she is still cryogenically suspended.

But the employee also laments that the technology won’t be able to restore the woman as she was in her photo—as she wished to be restored.