Holden’s out of school, licensed, and officially not taking your insurance. Now running his own acupuncture clinic in the East Village, he spends his days needling hipsters, dodging small talk, and contemplating the metaphysics of moxa. But when a mysterious new patient with blocked liver qi and a past comes through the door, Holden’s forced to confront everything he thought he left behind—including himself. Healing’s hard. Growing up is harder.

Holden Caulfield just got kicked out of yet another prep school—but this time, he's ditching phonies for pulse diagnosis.

Wandering the city with a pocket full of needles and a head full of existential dread, Holden reflects on meridians, meaning, and why everyone in the clinic is a goddamn liar. It's a coming-of-age story with spleen qi deficiency and unresolved grief at the center of it all.