When Derry McHugh graduates high school in 1981, he sees the rest of his life stretching out in front of him: He'll spend one last summer with his girlfriend, Lucy, and his best friend, Peter, before they both leave for college and he gets a job either at the local mine or the steel mill. That's just the way it was in Limestone Hill. But Derry's plans are upended when he meets Paul Rabazzio, an impossibly cool pot-smoking drummer who asks him and Peter to start a band. The barriers between the tidy categories Derry has always used to make sense of the world come tumbling down as he gets drawn into Paul's circle-a group that includes the beautiful, bewitching Summer-and uncovers some shocking secrets. is a story of loss and hope that celebrates the terrifying thrill of freedom, the messy complexity that lies beneath the surface of the familiar, and the way that even a brief time with the right person can forever change someone's life.