It is 2021, and Nick’s best friend, Timothy, is teaching him how to drive in his father’s old, battered pickup truck. Nick would have preferred to learn on an automatic vehicle, but the truck is a stick shift. He doesn’t have much of a choice—he has to learn to drive in secret because his mother, Lily, will not let him get a license until he turns 18, and he is only 15. The lesson does not go well.

They live on a small, isolated island off the coast of Washington State. Nick’s father is not in the picture, and although Nick begs his mother, she reveals few details about him. Nick is curious, especially because, unlike his mother, he does not look Chinese. He is blonde and blue eyed, and he does not understand how he has such light features, even with one white and one Chinese parent.

Nick and Timothy always feel slightly different than their classmates. Timothy is more interested in social justice than his peers, and Nick feels like an outsider on their tiny island. Although other boys their age play basketball in their free time, Nick and Timothy decide to get jobs.