Dess knows nothing good lasts. Disappointment is never far away, and that's a truth that Dess has learned to live with. Dess's mother's most recent arrest is just the latest in a long line of disappointments, but this one lands her with her baby brother Austin's foster family. Dess doesn't exactly fit in with the Carters. They're so happy, so comfortable, so normal, and Hope, their teenage daughter, is so hopelessly naive. Dess and Hope couldn't be less alike, but Austin loves them both like sisters. Over time their differences, insurmountable at first, fall away to reveal two girls who want the same thing: to belong.
