The world of pondside

The world enveloped by the Pondside Manor care facility is both real and unreal, as such establishments are wont to be. Its residents, many of whom suffer from dementia, already have a hard time discerning fact from fiction, so it would seem counterintuitive to introduce them to a video universe, also called Pondside, that mirrors their daily lives in exacting detail. And yet that's just what beloved resident Robert Kallman has done. Kallman, who struggles with ALS, created a game in which players enter realms teeming with things, events, and people from their past. In this virtual reality, they can enjoy happier, healthier times. The game becomes so addictive that when Kallman dies under mysterious circumstances, it is left to his closest friend, Foster, a young member of the kitchen staff, to discover how to reboot the game in its creator's absence and in the process determine whether Kallman's death was murder or suicide. Stefaniak infuses an often forbidding and depressing environment with joy and dignity in this Agatha Christie-esque cyber caper.