Fifteen-year-old Camille is a serious, intensely focused girl who has fallen in love with cheerful Sullivan, an older boy who reciprocates her feelings, mostly, but wants to be free to explore the world. When he leaves her to travel through South America, she is devastated. But over the next eight years, she develops into a more fully formed woman, with new interests and a new love and the possibility that she'll be less defenseless when Sullivan enters her life again.