At the beginning of her last summer in Kentucky before leaving for college, Natalie is once again visited by the apparition she calls "Grandmother" and meets a new boy, Beau, who changes her life. They're just momentary glimpses at first: her front door is red instead of its usual green, there's a pre-school where the garden store should be. But when her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, Natalie knows something isn't right. She gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls "Grandmother," who tells her: "You have three months to save him." And when she meets Beau, it's as if time just stops and nothing exists ... except Natalie and Beau.