Struggling author Kai lives with Emma, his partner of five years. His first novel was a one-hit wonder, but no publisher wants his second book.

Kai comes from extreme wealth: his mother, Maria, is a marketing titan. Successful doesn’t contain her; cruel doesn’t, either. She is callous, controlling, and so verbally abusive that Kai believes all of his accomplishments are related to her influence.

But when Maria retires, she spirals into a depression so severe that she moves in with Kai and Emma. Six months later, she hasn’t gotten better, and Emma has had enough. She wars with Kai over what to do: kick Maria out, send her to a mental hospital, or something worse?

Things take a turn when Kai and Emma run into a mutual friend, Andy. Normally a depressive mess, he is now confident, bubbly, and jubilant, having recently undergone an experimental procedure with a mysterious neurosurgeon, Dr. Elliot Findlay. The surgery, called the pathotomy, supposedly eliminates all negative emotion, leaving behind only unbridled happiness.

The pathotomy could be Maria’s savior—or it might just be her downfall.