Much of our lives surprisingly depend on tiny objects—wallets, keys, cellphones, rings, IDs— that their loss can turn our days upside down. But what really happens when we lose them? What about the people that find them?

Six different people, six different stories. Via, fresh from a breakup, bumps into the same kind stranger she met on the worst night of her life, and this time she’s determined to pay him back for his kindness—or at least return his lost wallet. Still in a daze after his family left him behind, Ronald meets Waldo, a curious ten-year-old kid who needs help finding his lost keys, and his way home. Gemma reunites with her estranged mother to return her lost PWD ID, only to find her stricken with Alzheimer’s without any memory of who she is. Reluctant and still resentful, Gemma agrees to help find her mother’s long-lost sister. In the middle of an already precarious relationship, Cindy loses her engagement ring. She hires a ring finder to help her look for it, and in their search, Cindy finally confronts the reasons that led to the loss of her ring. Dan Ian gives up all hope of getting back with his ex after losing his cellphone, but after getting a new one, he suddenly receives anonymous messages that he suspects (and wishes) might be from his ex. In the midst of these stories, with her own story of loss, Marya is the keeper of the lost and found logbook in her workplace. Through the stories of the objects she is entrusted with, she begins to face her own loss and, in the process, gains the courage to rebuild her life in the crowded Metro.

All the Lonely People is a novel of interconnected stories about chance encounters borne out of loss.