As a child, Gryffin Brooks was a musical prodigy. Now a young man in his twenties, although he has lost both of his parents to an accident, he still looks on the brighter side of life. He's optimistic even when everything seems to be falling apart. This view of the world is tested, however, when he meets Emery Everett. She calls herself a realist. They are drawn to each other despite their drastically different approaches to living. In an attempt to convince her that life isn't as awful as it seems, Gryffin makes a list of various activities to do together. She's skeptical but decides to give it a shot. The road isn't easy, especially when Emery is forced to confront her past, and the choices of Gryffin's troubled brother interferes with their progress. Although Gryffin's mission is to help Emery see the best in everything, she may be changing him as well. In this romance novel, an optimistic man seeks to change the mind of a pessimistic woman with a troubled past and soon finds his own life changed forever.