Olivia Sol is a Harmonic who spends her time calculating possibilities and ensuring proper distribution, stabilization, and efficiency in her work for the Heldfast government and in her personal life. As she works to keep her society in balance, she rationalizes cutting off resources to various groups while maintaining compliance within the system’s metrics. When the system affects her own life, though, Olivia quickly realizes the unfairness of grouping people into classifications instead of treating them as individuals. She’s aware that she won’t be able to sway the all-powerful council’s opinions on how to run the city; instead, she learns how to recognize and rewrite the system’s algorithms to produce outcomes that will save human lives. Secretly, she begins her alterations and monitors the results to ensure greater success for families in Heldfast. Olivia comes to realize that the choices the system offers aren’t the only options available, leaving her determined to uncover a new and better path that will maintain stability and balance the system’s metrics. Woods’ novel leans heavily on in-universe jargon, which may make it difficult to follow, especially for newcomers to the series: “Elder classification carried elevated risk weighting. Allocation scaled according to projected survivability. Tolerance thresholds defined sustainable variance.” The book’s glossary will assist such readers, who might otherwise have struggled with some of the figurative language. Olivia’s relationships with other characters remain underdeveloped and brief until fairly late in the story, which effectively contributes to her shift toward greater empathy.