London, the future.

AI's taken over most of the workplace. So. Population not only divided into rich&poor now, but: into Plain&Mod too. Mods are workers who've mutilated themselves to grab any menial jobs they can. Plains are, well, still intact.

Montagne, Vincent, Helen and Sister are GuildMembers Mods. Then they meet a stranger who changes them, and their lives acquire altered meaning: Montagne is given peace, Vincent scans people's life in his Claw, Helen Louds noopoetry, and Sister cocktails customers' inner emotions. They all meet in a pub one night, and it is like fate bringing them together.

As they renegotiate their place in London-society, they meet AI constructs, religious figures and Guild bosses, who treats them as prophets, human noo-paradigms, Ψ receptacles, or targets.

TBTCTOTC is love story. It is tale of low people given noo purpose and powers. It is tragedy and existential fable, quest for what makes AI conscious. It is friendship drama played across the dross &beauty of London.