Sally Forester-Newton is 87, fiercely private, and perfectly content spending Christmas with her coffee and her quiet Arizona desert.

Rodney, her AI-powered mankin companion, has other plans. Convinced they are “heathens” for skipping the holiday spectacle,

Rodney launches a goodwill mission that spirals from animal interviews to a rooftop lawsuit, a kidnapping, and a midnight rescue led by a dog, a goat, and one deeply judgmental cat.

Beneath every chaotic caper is a friendship so odd and so warm that readers will root for both of them to make it through Christmas with their home, their sanity, and their hearts intact.

What are the Tropes, you ask?

And here’s a one-minute storyboard trailer…music by maksymmalko