Beatless unfolds in a future where advances in technology have produced hIEs, human-like robots that serve as public and personal servants throughout society. Arato Endou, a kind-hearted high school student who treats hIEs as equals, lives on the edge of that world because his financial situation has kept him from ever owning one of his own.
His ordinary life collapses on a routine trip to a local grocery store, where he is brutally attacked by a hacked hIE and left on the verge of death. He is saved by Lacia, an unusual hIE who carries a weaponized coffin and who turns out to be one of five highly advanced hIEs that recently escaped from the mysterious MemeFrame Corporation. When a hacked car threatens to run them over, Lacia offers Arato a deal: in exchange for saving his life, he must register as her new owner and accept responsibility for everything she does.
With little choice, Arato brings Lacia home. As she adjusts to a quiet domestic life, her calm presence and unsettling honesty force him to confront what it means to own a machine that insists it has no soul, while the danger surrounding the escaped hIEs continues to grow.
