It's the summer of drinking and driving  disco and diets  fake IDs and geology  and fat 17-year-old Char is wondering if she is animal  vegetable  or mineral What does it mean when your best friend French-braids your hair  kisses you on the lips  and leaves town? Char gets a summer job in a nursing home  and meets people with bodies and abilities as various as the textures of the rocks her friend Felice collects