In a riveting story, published in this week’s issue, Ava Kofman unravels the mystery of Guojun and Silvia’s strange and troubling project. What begins as a suspected human-trafficking case takes a series of surprising turns, becoming something else entirely. Kofman covers every angle: she traces the couple’s complicated histories, interviews Elliott and other surrogates from across the country who carried children for them, uncovers the stunning lack of regulation in the nation’s for-profit surrogacy industry, and reveals major lapses in California’s child-protective services. “I’ve been doing this for twenty-two years,” an expert fertility attorney tells Kofman, “and I’ve never seen anything like this.”