The book is centered around twelve year old Martha Boyle. Her fellow classmate Olive Barstrow had just died after being hit by a car while riding her bike. Olive's mother shows up at Martha's front door handing her a piece of Olive's writing from her journal. It says Olive wants to be a writer and she wants to get to know Martha more. Martha's family leaves for Cape Cod the next day to visit her grandmother. Martha's father is Mr. Boyle (a novelist), and her mother is Mrs. Hubbard who works on the radio. Martha also has a 13 year old brother named Vince and a two year old sister named Lucy. Before leaving for the trip Martha had decided to be a novelist like her father. She didn't want to tell her family because she thought they would think she was copying her father. But she plans to tell them before they leave their grandmother's house. The Manning's live next door to Martha's grandmother's house. They have five boys in different age groups, Martha had wanted to see Tate Manning. But instead she meets Jimmy (the oldest) who is making a movie about different things. Martha sees what Jimmy has got so far on his tape. Jimmy tells her that he needs to film the death part and love part still. Meanwhile she and her grandmother have promised each other to tell something about themselves everyday and Martha is working on her story about a girl named Olive. Her dad stressed out at the dinner table once and decided to stop working on his book and does another type of work. As Jimmy and Martha hangout time after time Martha begins to like Jimmy. Then one night Jimmy sets up his video camera and kisses Martha. She then realizes Jimmy was just using her for his tape. Then when on the beach with her little sister she sees Jimmy holding hands with another girl.