Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. Lacey has no father, and has always been an outcast at school. People mock her when she’s with her mother on the bus. But today could be different: there’s the beginning of a friendship with a boy from school, she’s working at a new job that reminds Lacey of her cherished Aunt Linda.

But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control....