When Melissa Kizer returns to her hometown of Anna Maria Island, Florida in the winter of 1992, she expects to resume her childhood role of outcast. But something is different now that she’s fifteen, and Melissa has become someone boys and popular girls want to know. When the most-popular boy in class offers Melissa the chance to escape life in a house ruled by her mom’s latest boyfriend, she leaves behind the brother who needs her, and the boy next door who is seeking to protect her. Just as Melissa seems to achieve everything she ever wanted, her brother commits suicide. Melissa must not only grieve for her loss, she is forced to realize that the popularity and beauty she finally has is not enough to save her. Her only key to the joy she seeks may lay in the faith and love her neighbor offers.
