Mira is flying home from California to Pennsylvania to spend the Christmas holiday with her mother. On the flight, she meets Harper, “an international relations major at Pomona” (6), who believes Mira is also a college student. Mira actually attends an art high school in California that her now-deceased Aunt Phoebe encouraged her to go to. Mira was close to her Aunt Phoebe, her mother’s twin sister, and is still grieving her death from cancer a year prior.

Upon landing, Mira and Harper learn flights from Newark have been cancelled because of an impending snowstorm. Harper announces she’s going to rent a car to get home and invites Mira to join her. Mira refuses. However, when she calls her stepfather, Daniel, to let him know that she might not make it home that night, he tells her that he and Mira’s mother separated. Mira reflects on her mother’s profound grief a year ago and worries about her being alone on the anniversary of Phoebe’s death.

Mira finds Harper and learns that Harper has rented a car. Harper again invites Mira to travel with her, informing Mira that she has invited three others—Brecken,

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