Foe is set in the near future and centers around a couple, Junior and Hen, who live a quiet, isolated life on their farm in the middle of nowhere. They are rarely visited by anyone and only have themselves to keep each other company. Their life is disrupted when a stranger named Terrance arrives. Terrance informs Junior that he will be forced to go into space and complete a mission for three years. Told through sparse prose, which adds to the story's atmosphere, the novel is about technology's effect on humanity, the increasingly blurred line between reality and fiction, and the changing nature of love and relationships.
Both Junior and Hen are upset that they will be apart from each other. However, Terrance decides to create an android replica of Junior to keep her company during his absence. This troubles Junior and Hen in different ways. And as the departure date approaches, the lines between reality and fiction become more difficult to discern. The narrative structure of the novel amplifies the tension the couple feels, leading to the reveal at the end of the novel that the Junior readers have come to know is actually the android.
The introduction of the doppelgänger concept towards the end of the novel, where a lookalike android replaces a real person, raises pertinent questions about the nature of what constitutes a person and what makes us human. Is it our memories, physical appearance, or something more intangible? To that end, can androids be called humans and people?
The novel also taps into a growing broader cultural anxiety about the advancements of technology and the implications it could have on human beings. The idea that a human replica can replace an individual in a deep, complex marital relationship points to deeper societal concerns about the erasure of individuality in an age where individuality can be manufactured.
