In the fall of 1992, amid the picturesque New Hampshire countryside, seventeen year old Lacey Dorshire begins her first and final year at The Knolls boarding school.

As school begins, Lacey struggles to fit in and as the months progress those struggles become increasingly difficult, until a jog along the shore of Lake Massabesic, on a cold November morning brings a handsomely athletic rower named Shepard into her life and things change. Even though they're from drastically different backgrounds, the two become immediate friends, quickly discovering they have more in common than either of them is prepared for.