The novel is written from the perspective of Dorrit Weger, a childless writer who lives alone with her dog and is close to the poverty line. On her 50th birthday she is taken to a special unit – a reserve unit for biological material – where she must live out the rest of her life. These units have been set up to cater for dispensable people – women aged 50 and men aged 60 – who are childless or don’t have a job which contributes to society. These people don’t have anyone who loves or needs them and aren’t considered useful to society, so they serve the community by undergoing various tests and studies – imagine animal testing performed on people. Eventually they donate organs to the needed citizens – those who are loved, raise children and contribute to the economic growth of society – who need organs from healthy bodies to survive.