Our story takes place in two different periods: Chicago 1936, in the height of the Great Depression, which is our NOW; and Paris 1896, during the great Belle Époque, which is our THEN. Characters can reside within either period but those who are known as SONDERS exist in both, maintaining two separate, and sometimes very different lives (or identities!) as they are transported without warning from one period to the other.

There is – as yet – no explanation for the phenomenon, and it affects each Sonder differently, though the duration and frequency of their displacements generally increase over time. Many Sonders have been enjoying the blessings and enduring the challenges of their unique dichotomy for years but every so often a new lost soul joins their ranks, falling asleep in one period and waking up in another, where they are forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the spectrum of time and their existence on it.