The second born son in a broken marriage, Joey Lynch has spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of a family unravelling. When his older brother Darren skips town, twelve-year-old Joey finds himself thrown into the role of protector to his younger siblings and mother. Plagued by self-loathing, and furious with the world, he grapples with teenage life and his unwavering sense of duty to his family, while balancing precariously close to a life of addiction that threatens to swallow him whole.

The only light in his sea of darkness is his boss's firecracker of a daughter who refuses to back down. A girl who just so happens to be his classmate. Aoife Molloy has never been backwards in coming forward.

Her bubbly and self-assured nature has never led her astray. Until her first day of secondary school when she collides with a hot-headed boy who sparks a burning curiosity inside of her that only grows stronger by the day. Falling into a complicated friendship with her father's apprentice, Aoife works to unravel the secrets around Joey Lynch's life - while he desperately fights to keep her out.