Fifteen-year-old Haley built a comfortable life for herself. She's taken over her school's failing newspaper and learned to navigate her dad's armchair politics. All she wants to do is finish high school and make her absentee mom proud.

But when her rival steals her meal and dies from food poisoning, Haley must reexamine her life. With help from the strange boy next door, a popular theater kid, and the work of a reclusive author, Haley embarks on a quest to discover what it means to live.