Desperate to find respite from the knowledge of her father's infidelities, his verbal abuse, and her step-mother's psychological torment, Gina spent hours doing Jane Fonda’s workouts, smoked cigarettes instead of eating food, and became obsessed with her thinness... with the notion of fading away. She found solace in restlessness—drinking hallucinogenic mushroom tea and inhaling crushed pills and powders—perching herself on the periphery of danger again and again.

Gina finally glimpsed a better life for herself when her grandfather, a man who was a surrogate father to her, became terminally ill. She fell in love with John, a stranger who was utterly familiar, but who was addicted to heroin. She moved from New Hampshire to California, crossing the country in an attempt to alleviate her self-destructive tendencies, but found herself pulled back to New Hampshire, to John, a man with whom, despite his struggle, she could not deny the sense of home she felt.

But what would it cost for a girl to run wildly and recklessly into womanhood, making instant, temporary homes?