Sourdough

Lois Clary works as a software developer at General Dexterity, a robotics startup based in San Francisco with big plans to change the world. She spends her whole day coding and falls asleep at night, only interacting with the two brothers who own the local dive bar where she gets her meal every night. Then, catastrophe! Visa problems. The brothers quickly shut their business. However, they are delivering their culture—the sourdough starter they use to create their bread—to Lois as a last gift. They tell her that she has to take care of it, feed it every day, play music for it, and learn how to bake with it.

Even if Lois isn't a baker, she could use a roommate—even if it's only a desperate colony of microbes. She will soon be bringing loaves of her own handmade bread to the General Dexterity lunch in addition to eating it herself. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

Lois finds a tight-knit group that isn't interested in taking on new members when she appears before the jury that selects who gets to sell what in Bay Area marketplaces. Then, however, a substitute appears: a covert market that seeks to combine technology with food. However, just who are these people?