Twelve-year-old Sam Ingram is in love with the boy across the street. The six blocks between home and school she walks with Tobias Howard are the best part of her day.

But Sam's life is turned upside down when a terrible accident puts both of her parents in the hospital for months. Knowing of no other family members, Sam moves in with the Howards, and it's a radically different kind of family life than she's ever known. Different... and better. The longer she stays with the Howards, the more Sam recognizes the dysfunction in her own family. She wants her parents to get well. But she doesn't want to go back to the way things were.

Fourteen-year-old Tobias Howard feels sorry for the friendless girl from across the street, but his own friends think Sam Ingram is a weirdo... and his parents like her way too much.

When Sam moves in with his family, Tobias isn't prepared for just how much she's going to change (or ruin?) his life. Little by little, his priorities start to rearrange themselves, and his friends aren't too happy about it. The fact that Tobias finds himself falling for Sam doesn't help.

As Sam and Tobias grow by turns closer and further apart, they are both challenged to learn how to love... and how to let go.