“We don’t get just one love in our life, but you never forget your first.” 13-year-old Andy Olson had almost entirely resigned himself to ambling aimlessly through his lackluster life in the small, sleepy town of Jasper, Nebraska until his first day of eighth grade, when cheery new kid Owen Ackerman spontaneously slid into the seat next to him in their first period health class and ruined everything. Owen is everything Andy’s not - unmissably attractive, immediately outgoing, and almost annoyingly honest - but somehow, bound by their mutual loneliness, the two strike up an instant friendship nevertheless. And, despite his best efforts to fight it, Owen subsequently becomes the object of Andy’s affection as well. Andy’s struggles with his sexuality and identity are nothing new to him, but when Owen arrives, any chance he has of controlling them anymore goes out the window. And even though the two drift in and out of each other’s lives over the decade that follows their first meeting, they always find their way back to one another, consistently blurring the line between friendship and “something more” as they age - despite all the dangers such a “something” would encounter in their small town and the rapidly changing world around them.