Sally Rooney's third novel follows four friends in their thirties: Alice, a novelist whose recent success has left her uncertain of her work's value; her best friend Eileen, an editorial assistant stuck in professional and romantic limbo; Felix, a warehouse worker Alice meets on a dating app; and Simon, Eileen's childhood friend who has always loved her. The narrative alternates between their lives in Dublin and a small Irish coastal town, tracking their relationships as they form, falter, and transform. Interspersed with the third-person narration are long emails between Alice and Eileen, in which they discuss literature, politics, climate change, and the difficulty of maintaining connection in a world that seems to be ending. Rooney examines how her characters' intimate lives intersect with larger historical forces, particularly the sense of ecological and political crisis that colors their generation's experience. The novel explores class difference with characteristic precision, particularly in Felix's discomfort with Alice's literary world and Alice's guilt about her success. Rooney's prose remains spare and her dialogue devastating, capturing the hesitations and missteps of people trying to love each other honestly. Readers will find here Rooney's ongoing investigation into how people with different levels of power can treat each other ethically, now extended to questions about how to live meaningfully in a world whose future seems uncertain.