In a future world, supplies of drinkable water are depleted, except for a few hydrospheres. A huge gulf grows between the water-rich few with watercards and water-poor scavvos.
Alex is a mnemopath, a memory machine for a senior manager in water export trading, feeding facts into her boss's earpiece and eavesdropping. Her job isn't noble, but she needed the water allowance.
When an old boyfriend, Lawrence, returns, working for the main Chinese water company, Alex dreams of escape. But Lawrence exposes his company's marketing fraud and is disappeared back to China.
Alex is ousted from her company, on the grounds of fraternising with the company Lawrence worked for. Her watercard turned off, Alex finds a way to fight back. Her bosses underestimate her, but as a human memory machine, she knows enough to blackmail them.
Now she just has to get to China to find Lawrence.