For nine years Maeve Parker has been waiting for her mother to come home. "I'll be back soon, my darling," her mother, Sage, said the day she left. "Don't you worry. I just need to go find myself." Do you have to run away in order to find yourself? Maeve wondered. When, exactly, do you know when that self you were so desperately looking for is found? Now Maeve is sixteen-years-old and Sage still hasn't returned. Fiercely independent and disillusioned, Maeve has grown up with her mother's ex-boyfriend as her only companion. Giving up all hope of Sage's return, she convinces herself that mothers-and people-are unnecessary. When she meets Ky and Levi, she is adamant about keeping them at arms length. But Ky, the only true friend Maeve knows, and Levi, the boy with the startling blue eyes, crash through Maeve's walls. Then one of them is wrenched away-permanently. And Maeve is left dangling with the final words they left behind: go find Sage Parker.