Evie is going away to school, but she can’t seem to leave her worries behind. Even as her train speeds toward her future at a London art school, Evie imagines her father drinking alone in their tiny cottage in Cornwall. But soon Evie is swept up in the colors of London: the streets, the traffic, the people, and especially the Thames River, which she decides she must paint.

Evie’s friends at art school face challenges of their own. Rob, a painter with a primitive imagination, is about to become a young mother. Bianca, a bubbly Italian student, struggles with health problems. Cecile, a former ballerina, faces biting criticism of her flowery paintings. And Evie finds herself falling for Zeb, an older student who makes space-age sculptures out of metal and light.

Evie’s education comes to a halt when she finds her father passed out on her doorstep. She struggles to help her father stay sober, but he disappears into the London streets, never to return. As Evie mourns her father and faces the forgotten history of her mother’s life and death, she must learn how to incorporate loss into her life --- and into her art.