In high school, Kara dreams of having a doomed romance. Rafe is certain that every romance is doomed.
After falling in love as teenagers, bookish Kara and political activist Rafael have a bitter break-up right before Rafe leaves for college. They both move out of their small town and try to move on, finding new loves and new ways of getting hurt. Yet they continue to circle in and out of each other's lives, never sure whether they are meant to be together or caught up in the attraction of what might have been.
Even if someone can get back together with their first love, will they be the same person who fell in love in the first place?