High school freshman Kate has a lot on her mind, what with taking care of her heartbroken mother and looking after the family chicken farm in Maryland, but she promised her dying father to look after her older brother who is just back from juvenile detention--and this year that seems to involve paying off the bullies at school by doing their school work.

In a graphic novel adaptation of the book, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.