A year after her mother's death, sixteen-year-old Sidonie still spends sleepless nights playing cards with her cat, Bogie. During the day she lies around and reads under the nose of her nineteen-year-old sister, Roberta, who angrily scrubs floors that are already clean and cooks meals that are inedible. Their father, a doctor, comes home when he is too exhausted to remain at work. Only the jazz piano-playing of Roberta's new boyfriend, Phil, brings some relief to the long hot summer.

Then Kieran, an angry sixteen-year-old stranger, comes to their lakeside community. Sidonie discovers that he isn't easy to ignore, and in the weeks that follow, her growing attraction to him is accompanied by more frequent, powerful memories of her mother.