This slender, gorgeous tale opens on an east coast dorm, emptying out for the winter holidays. As her classmates head home, Marin steels herself for days of isolation, broken only by a visit from her best friend, Mabel. Despite previously sharing everything, including a brief but heady romance, Marin left Mabel behind without warning following the sudden death of her grandfather, her only known relative. Two stories unfold in tandem: the tentative, delicately wrought detente between the two girls in the present day, as they navigate both the snowbound college campus and their own emotional baggage, and Marin's former life in San Francisco, full of hazy beach days, a passionate love for her home city, and a warm but incomplete relationship with her grandparent-guardian, whose passing ripped more than one hole in her life.
