While her classmates venture off in giggling groups to Asia and South America, Lila Ruth plans her gap year alone. Craving independence - and licking the wounds inflicted by a tumultuous final year of school - she decides to take on a summer of hard, honest work under the desert sun. She's going to live on a kibbutz. Arriving in Tel Aviv, it soon becomes clear that Lila Ruth's dream of kibbutz life is embarrassingly naïve. Unwilling to retreat home, scrambling for a new plan, she accepts an unusual gig translating a novel from Hebrew - a language she doesn't speak - into English. As the summer goes on, the project becomes an exercise in finding and making meaning, sometimes with unintended consequences. Desperate for connection, Lila Ruth finds herself falling in love - and must finally reckon with the choices she's made.