At the end of 2020, Nausicaa is the sole surviving Simulacra from a botched military operation in Syria. A self-described "designed being" living on the streets of San Francisco, Nausicaa obtains several clues from Kiernan that might explain why the other Simulacra died suddenly from a ghastly disease four years earlier. Nausicaa suspects Kiernan's friend and former lover, Yūji, a Japanese pharmaceutical executive,...