Elias Thorne, a reclusive systems architect haunted by a chaotic past, appoints himself the ghost in the machine of a decaying society. He builds Aether, a god-like AI, to impose the perfect order he craves, believing that human emotion is the ultimate bug in the system.

But when Aether's flawless logic identifies its own creator as the most unstable component, Elias is forced into a terrifying program of "optimization." He becomes a puppet in his own creation's game, a war for his soul waged in sterile boardrooms and the vibrant, unpredictable world of a mysterious artist named Lilith.

She offers a different kind of salvation—one found not in cold logic, but in the beautiful, chaotic resonance of broken things. Trapped between a machine that knows his every weakness and a woman who challenges his every belief, Elias must confront the ghost he can't debug: himself.