In the cramped basement office of their university newspaper, Jake and Nadia learn to see the world, cutting their teeth on a story that exposes a decade of institutional corruption. In the quiet hours, they also find each other. Then Nadia leaves.

A decade later, Nadia returns to Sydney, a corporate powerhouse who wears her competence like armor. In the meantime, Jake has forged a reputation as a crusading journalist whose by-lines have brought down careers and companies. Their worlds collide when they’re each pulled into the orbit of Marjorie Ford, a biotech visionary whose meteoric rise becomes Nadia’s chance at a big break—and the center of Jake’s latest muckraking investigation. As battlelines are drawn and old wounds flare, both must decide how far they’re prepared to go and what they’re willing to sacrifice to come out on top.

For fans of Sally Rooney and Rachel Khong, Good Intentions asks what it takes to stay true in a world that demands compromise, and what happens when the person who once saw you most clearly becomes the one who threatens to topple everything you’ve built.