When 12-year-old Shiny Apalaris is taken from her home and placed into foster care, one secret love story ends and another begins. Years later, her brother Carl remains obsessed by the loss of a sister with whom he discovered a love so intense, it tore their family apart. He is still haunted by cached memories of the shy, funny girl he loved but could not protect. Carl searches for Shiny, by now almost a ghost to him, as he wanders through faltering relationships, dead-end jobs, and vivid flashbacks to a time in which he once felt whole. The people he meets along the way will by turns aid and...