Seventeen-year-old Rose Hemmersbach aspires to break out of small town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams, just like her aunt Colleen, but must face her mother's heroin addiction and its ramifications first.
"Rose Hemmersbach aspires to break out of small town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams at Belwyn School for the Arts after she graduates. Painting is her escape from her annoying siblings and her family's one rule: ignore the elephant in the room. When Rose finds her mother dying on the kitchen floor of a heroin overdose, she pleads with the universe to find a heartbeat. But when her mother is taken to the hospital, the troubles are just beginning. Now all that matters are her siblings: Rose doesn't have room to do her schoolwork, let alone pick up a paintbrush. Forced to do the homecoming mural with Rafa, a new senior at Sparta High, Rose discovers her brain still has room to paint. As her dreams of the future start to slip from her grasp, Rose must face the question of what happens when- if- her mom comes home again"--Adapted from back cover.