Sixteen-year-old Clair Taylor has neighbors who are what locals call whippoorwills, the kind of people who fill their yards with rusted car parts and old broken furniture. Clair tries to ignore the ugly junk, choosing instead to dream of a future beyond her rural New Hampshire town. But when a black dog named Wally is chained up to a pole in the yard next door, Clair can't look the other way. Because Wally isn't just another piece of trash. Clair takes it upon herself to save Wally, and the immediate connection she has with the lovable dog catches her off-guard. Even more surprising is her developing relationship with eighteen-year-old Danny Stewart, a boy trying to escape the violent storm cloud that hangs over his family. Over the course of one fateful spring, two teenagers will ask: doesn't everyone and every dog deserve a chance at happiness?