My Murder

In a near-future version of mid-Michigan, a government body called the replication commission possesses the technology to clone deceased individuals from their preserved cells, restoring their memories and identities. Lou is one of five women cloned after being murdered by a serial killer named Edward Early. She wakes in a hospital with all her memories intact except for the days immediately preceding her death, which were lost during the replication process. Her husband, Silas, and their infant daughter, Nova, are waiting for her. Gert, a firm, practical representative from the replication commission who leads the survivors' support program, explains that Lou is a copy of the original Louise, grown from her cells.

Three months after her return, Lou struggles to adjust. Nova, nine months old, cries whenever Lou holds her, seemingly unable to recognize this new version of her mother. Silas is anxious and overprotective. Lou discovers a green canvas bag hidden in her closet, packed by the original Louise with a passport, Social Security card, and other essentials: evidence that the woman she was cloned from had been preparing to leave her family. Lou resolves to unpack it but keeps the bag's existence from Silas.

Lou attends a weekly survivors' group with the four other cloned women: Angela, found on a park bench; Fern, found in a shopping cart; Jasmine (Jazz), found in an intersection; and Lacey, found on a merry-go-round. Each had her throat slit, her shoes placed nearby as Early's signature. Lou bonds with Fern, who insists she is a completely different person from the woman she was cloned from, referring to her predecessor as "her" or "my other me." Fern has remade her entire life with new clothes, new habits, and a new apartment layout. At Fern's apartment, Lou discovers sealed letters from Early's legal team declining Fern's requests to visit him in prison. Lou pockets one.

Lou returns to her job as a touch therapist at the Room, a virtual reality service where she adopts a comforting avatar and holds clients in therapeutic embraces. During a session with a regular client called Mr. Pemberton, Lou impulsively grabs his wrists and refuses to let go, an aggressive act she cannot explain. Her boss, Javier (Javi), warns her but does not fire her. Meanwhile, a leaked advertisement reveals an update to Early Evening, a VR horror game based on the women's murders, that will allow players to take on the killer's perspective. Jazz confesses she has played the game over a hundred times, and Angela reveals she has taken a secretive new job tied to it.

When Nova develops a fever, Lou's father Odd, short for "other Dad" and one of Lou's two fathers, guides them through the illness by phone. For the first time since Lou's return, Nova allows Lou to hold her without crying. That night, Silas tells Lou she seems different from the original Louise, who had been sad and desperate before her death. He cries and tells her, "I'm glad you're here" (71).

Since Early's lawyers refuse both women's visit requests, Fern devises a plan to reach him through his mother, Celia Baum. Fern tricks Celia into booking a session at Lou's Room by sending a forged gift certificate. Lou gives Celia a genuine, compassionate session, but when Celia asks Lou to change her avatar to resemble her son, Lou reveals her true face instead. Celia recognizes her as one of her son's victims and disconnects. Lou tracks Celia down the next day to apologize. Celia tells Lou that Edward has agreed to see them, explaining that she has 27 days before his benightment, a 40-year medically induced stasis designed to rehabilitate offenders through therapeutic dreams.

Fern and Lou drive to the stasis center in Kalamazoo. Early is tearful, a side effect, he claims, of empathy-enhancing drugs. Fern freezes with fear. Lou lashes out, telling Early he means nothing to them. Then Early makes a devastating confession: He killed the other four women, but he did not kill Louise. He falsely confessed because, as he puts it, "Four? Five? What's the difference? More seemed better." Lou panics and calls for the guards.

Shaken, Lou visits the Luminols, a group of amateur cold-case detectives led by Lacey and her mother, Tatum. They reveal they had already suspected Lou's murder was different: The body was not displayed, she ran from her attacker, she was killed in the afternoon rather than at night, and the park location repeated Angela's crime scene. They advise Lou to tell no one and raise the statistical likelihood that Lou's killer is her husband. Lou defends Silas fiercely but agrees to keep silent.

Lou investigates in secret. She learns from Javi that the original Louise had been sneaking into the office at night in the week before her death and told him she believed the killer was following her. Fern urges Lou to stop digging, then vanishes, abandoning her apartment and leaving her cat behind with feeding instructions listing the cat's name as "Lou."

An intruder breaks into Lou's house while she is away. The babysitter, Preeti, hears footsteps and rushes to protect Nova, but the intruder flees out a window. Lou checks the closet and finds the green canvas bag is gone. The Luminols present new evidence: a bank statement showing Silas withdrew $10,000, half their savings, three days after her murder. Lou also discovers that Gert has been calling Silas every week since the day after her disappearance, before her body was even found.

During a mass event inside Early Evening in which armed Angela avatars hunt unarmed Edwards, Lou encounters Preeti in the game. Preeti confesses that the intruder was a woman who looked exactly like Lou, wearing a wig of long hair. Silas told Preeti to say she had not seen anyone. Lou realizes the intruder was the original Louise, alive.

Lou drives through the night to the home of Odd in Rockport. Inside, Fern sits at the kitchen table. Across from her sits the original Louise, alive, wearing Lou's old clothes. The original Louise explains that she never intended to fake her death. Overwhelmed by postpartum depression, she slipped off her running shoes on the trail one afternoon, dropped her phone, and ran to Odd's house. She did not know the replication commission would exploit her disappearance. Gert manufactured a lifeless facsimile of Louise's body, staged its discovery, and used the sympathetic story of a murdered young mother to rehabilitate the commission's reputation and justify cloning all five victims. Gert told Silas the truth at the original Louise's insistence. The $10,000 was Silas giving Louise half their savings. The detectives sensed Silas was lying because he was: He knew his wife had not been murdered.

The original Louise says she is not coming back. She and Fern plan to travel together and start over. Lou tells her to go: "You go and I'll stay here. [...] I'll love her for you. I'll love them both for you. And for me" (281). They hold hands across the table.

Lou returns home and has an honest reckoning with Silas. They acknowledge their mutual lies and agree to stop hiding behind fear. She attends a final survivors' group meeting, announces she is leaving, and quietly asserts her autonomy. In her last scene, Mr. Pemberton arrives at the Room, but when Lou confronts him, he drops his avatar to reveal the face of the original Louise, who has been visiting in disguise to make sure Lou would be okay. She says goodbye and disconnects. Lou is left alone in the Room, arms still raised in an embrace, holding herself.