Aspiring writer Carter Webb has just been dumped by his true love Sophia. Heartbroken and depressed, he escapes Los Angeles to suburban Michigan to care for his ailing grandmother and to start work on a book he has always wanted to write. Soon after his arrival, Carter stumbles into the lives of the family across the street: Sarah Hardwicke, the mother of two daughters; Paige, a precocious, effervescent 11-year old; and her older sister, Lucy, an angst-ridden teenager. While Sarah faces her own personal crisis, Lucy wrestles with her own fears. Through his relationships with all of these women, Carter discovers that what felt like the end was really just the beginning of something else.