Stella decorates her room at Saint Grace’s Hospital with art drawn by her sister Abby. Stella’s friends Camila and Mya arrive at the hospital to visit her. They are about to embark on their senior trip to Cabo, a trip Stella will miss as she has been admitted to the hospital for increasingly failing lung function because of cystic fibrosis. She feels at home at the hospital due to her extensive stays since she was six years old. However, now reeling from her parents’ divorce, Stella is even more determined to get well, certain they could not handle losing her after losing their marriage.

After Camila and Mya depart to prepare for their trip, Stella continues to work through her long to-do list and record a live video for her popular YouTube channel where she shares her struggles with cystic fibrosis. During her afternoon check-in with Barb, her respiratory therapist at Saint Grace’s, Stella learns that her friend Poe, who also lives with cystic fibrosis, has also been checked into the hospital. As Stella ventures around the hospital to say hello to Poe, who she finds sleeping, she encounters a handsome young man with a smile that is “lopsided, and charming, and it has a magnetic warmth to it” (22).