Lore wakes up in an alley, naked, a huge gash running down her back, her identity implant—the only proof of her heritage in one of the world’s richest families—gone. Hearing footsteps, she calls for help, and meets Spanner, a hacker and opportunist who knows how to take advantage of anyone in anyplace. In her hands, Lore becomes someone else. But her past is never too far away, and her knowledge of how systems operate far too valuable to keep to herself. Her family’s history parallels a precarious operation to remediate the city’s polluted waterways—with both tracks as likely to end in disaster as redemption. Griffith’s characters always cut through the world like a knife, and Lore is no exception.