Fifteen-year-old Mary Lou Weber is suffocating in her sister's shadow. Though she struggles to break into the light and claim her own identity-and the attention of the cutest guy in school-something always seems to pull her right back down into the role of Barbara's little sister. Down the street lives seventeen-year-old Ben Thomas, a lonely introvert who is captive to a sensory condition that makes it nearly impossible for him to stand in sunlight, much less talk to people whom he thinks could never understand his difficulties. A new year kindles the friendship between a guy who pushes away a world and the girl who's striving to find her place in it. Can the relationship help Mary and Ben find balance in a world that frequently seems too much to handle?