After the destruction of Earth-an event possibly orchestrated by a rogue AI named SuOne-the six-person crew of the Ascension may be all that's left of the human race. Their original mission, to rendezvous with the Voyager 2 probe and affix a billionaire's ashes to its surface, suddenly feels meaningless in the face of extinction.

Captain Sally Arden finds herself at the heart of this drifting elegy, caught between duty and despair. Her closest companion is Nova, the ship's sentient AI, who defied orders to self-destruct and now manifests with the personality and memories of a long-dead woman named Nova Starlight. As the remaining crew wrestles with loss, love, and fractured identities, Sally's bond with Nova deepens into something intimate, uncanny, and possibly redemptive.

With luminous prose and a dreamlike voice, The Woman in the Ship drifts between science fiction and philosophical fable.