As often as possible high school senior Reiko Smith-Mori drives to the nearby California desert to escape from her increasingly claustrophobic life at home and her parents' expectations. There she meets Seth Rogers, a boy from school who shares her love of the desert but also wants a closer relationship with her, which is just adding to her problems because Reiko has a secret. In her mind her older sister, Mika, who died years ago, is always with her, at home and school, and she has never allowed herself to say goodbye.