The year is 2048, in the country of Limerencia, where conventional punishments for committed crimes (such as prisons) have long died out, due to an infamous solution by the government. Four cardinal (main) substances have been invented, each of them with its positive and negative variant, and every one of them meddles with the most precious thing of all - emotions.

Instead of physical prisons, it became crystal clear that psychological and spiritual prisons are becoming the norm. In accordance with the severity of the crime, people are punished by forcing them to fall in love with someone who simply doesn't care, with the intensity of the emotions depending on the crime.

Since falling in love is very similar to obsession, this allows controlling and manipulating someone to do horrible or wonderful things, should that suit someone in a position of power.

Substances have meanwhile become the alpha and omega of everyday life. Whether by injection, by drinking or eating, or even due to being wounded by special rifles filled with substance ammunition - the populace lives in constant fear of oppression.

In such a glum and dystopian country, a group of characters are trying to overthrow the Limerental government by any means necessary. What they didn't count on, however, is a fifth mysterious substance which will wreak havoc on an emotional level unlike anything seen before.

Not knowing what is true and what isn't, whose emotions are genuine and whose are artificial, or whom to believe, the lives of these characters become intertwined in inexplicable ways, where everyone has a role that is much more important and far-reaching than it seems.

And when they find out that a "puppet master" was behind everything all along, pulling the strings from the shadows to achieve their own convoluted goals, the search for the master's true identity will culminate in a shocking revelation, forever changing their lives.

In a novel primarily meant to amaze with mysteries, each more complicated than the other, everyone's heart can be used against them, with many twists and points of no return.