New York City, 2083. After decades of floods, infrastructure disasters, and abandonment, what was once the greatest city on Earth has shrunk to northern Manhattan and a few enclaves in the Bronx and Staten Island.

Pest controllers keep it livable for the few people who remain, and the only industries are tourism and bio-research. By law they're limited to using non-lethal methods like sound cannons and pheromones, until a massive rat horde spurs the mayor to lift the no-kill order for two weeks.

Raised to believe it was morally indefensible to kill an animal, Felicia Shepherd is a pest controller who tries to deal with the swarms of rats and roaches plaguing her city without hurting anything. As if that weren't enough, she's also wrestling with a growing suspicion that her mother, who disappeared after a horrible accident with a neural implant, isn't actually dead.

And the fact that the rat and roach swarms seem to be... talking to her.