The only thing Rumi Seto knows for certain that she absolutely wants is to go on writing music with her younger sister, Lea, for the rest of her life. Then, Lea dies in a car accident, and Rumi finds herself sent away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while her mother deals with her grief. Rumi feels the loss, abandonment, and absence of her sister, mother, and of the music, but she also meets the "boys next door," one the smiling Kai, a teenage surfer, and the other the elderly George Watanabe, a man who is dealing with his own grief. With their help, Rumi may be able to find her way back to life, and finish the song she and Lea had been working on.