Chapter One: Aster

Aster is a girl trapped by silence and circumstances and love. The silence of the people around her, the circumstances of her home and the love of her grieving and deeply broken mother.

Daniel is a boy trapped by obligation and determination and love. The obligation to follow in his families footsteps, the determination to fulfil his parents expectations and the love of his female relatives in crisis for whom he is rock and comforter.

Both are lost in the relentlessly in coming tide of high school's impending end and the future that lies beyond it. Both are drowning without knowing until the one speaks and the other listens.