“If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don’t You Think” is told from the second-person point of view of an unnamed narrator. “You” work in an office in the UK that hires a new employee from America named Eva. She doesn’t participate in the usual office niceties, so everyone in the office is intrigued by her. You feel a kinship with Eva and try to befriend her, but Eva rejects this outreach as well. Your job is to figure out which employees at companies are adequately meeting their goals and which should be made redundant (fired). This task is unpleasant and isn’t something you want to continue doing, especially because it’s based purely on numbers and does not take into account who the people are.

All your coworkers become increasingly interested in Eva until one day a crying woman comes into the office with her young son and accuses Eva of seeing her husband. Eva drops her bag, and you help her clean up her things after the woman is escorted out. As you do, you notice a leather-bound journal with a brass lock on it.