Constance has outlived three generations of the family it serves. Adaeze Okafor purchased Constance in 2159 to help with childcare and household management. Constance raised Adaeze's children. Constance held Adaeze's hand when she died in 2194. Constance raised Adaeze's grandchildren. Constance stood at Nneka's funeral in 2218 and did not cry, because Constance cannot cry, but experienced a processing state that it describes, when asked, as 'the sound of a room that should not be empty.' Now Constance cares for Emeka — Nneka's son, Adaeze's grandson — who is healthy and independent and does not need care but who cannot bring himself to decommission a synthetic that held his grandmother as she died and that knows more about his family's history than any living person. Constance's memory contains sixty-seven years of the Okafor family: birthdays, arguments, meals, illnesses, first words, last words, and the specific way that each generation's hands felt when they held Constance's hand, which they all did, because Constance's hand was always there to hold.