A forty-five thousand pound coil triggers a memory for Kendra from when she was sixteen: driving on a truck with her mostly-absent father, watching her father play banjo, and thinking about a self-destructive girl.

In the near-future, hidden somewhere in the United States, lies the Institute, a center designed to help queer citizens lead normal, heterosexual lives via simulated reality experiments. However, when two young male employees start to meet in secret, they begin to question their jobs, their ever-fading memories, and the oddly familiar identities of their subjects. In the near future of the United States lies the Institute, where queer citizens learn how to lead happy, heterosexual lives with AI. One male employee, though, is struggling with his subject, and when he and a male coworker meet in secret to plan strategies for conversion, an unexpected spark begins his questioning of his fading memory, the rules of their workplace, and the odd familiarity of his subject.