Fourteen-year-old Jake is used to being on his own. He hasn't heard from his father since he was seven, and he doesn't really remember him. His mother has two jobs and night classes, so he is usually alone at home. The independence is nice, but he gets scared in the empty apartment, especially at night. Jake often goes alone to see his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, who has early-onset schizophrenia and lives in a residence for severely disturbed children. He knows that his mother doesn't have much time, but it bothers him as she comes with him less often. He still holds out hope that a drug will come along to make Sarah okay. Besides Sarah, his closest friend is JT, a retired music teacher for whom he does errands and a few odd jobs. When she ends up with a half-wild, half-grown cat, Jake is immediately drawn to it. He is the first person to be able to pet the cat, who can't stay with JT and has nowhere else to go. Afraid his mother won't let him take the cat, he decides not to tell her, and smuggles Star into his room while she's at work. At JT's prodding, he starts writing down one of the stories he's thought up, a fairy tale about a teenage boy who must free his young childhood friend, now a queen, from a wizard's curse. Scenes and characters are inspired by events and people from Jake's own life. When Sarah gets worse and has to be hospitalized, Jake worries that she will never get better. Then he starts to fear that he is going insane, too.