My nostrils filled with the smells of age and disinfectant and overboiled cabbage, and I knew that I had truly discovered the meaning of fear.
Everything in Seth's life is a disaster. His plan to get closer to the girl of his dreams has gone horrendously wrong, school couldn't get much worse and his father is threatening to chain him to a factory floor.
His plan to win over the fair Harmony results in having to serve time at the Happy Hours Rest Home, aka Fossil Farm. Here he meets Ellen, who has secrets locked deep in her past, and Billie, who goes to his school but may as well live on a different planet. She's stroppy, smart-mouthed and annoying - plus, she's a friend of his brainiac sister Rachel.
Things start to look up when Ellen agrees to help him make a documentary about her life as a teenager for his history assignment, but in Seth's world nothing good seems to last for long - in standing up for Billie he makes a dangerous enemy, and his dream date with Harmony turns out nothing like he could have imagined. In helping Ellen tell the story of her life, while attempting to survive the chaos of his own, Seth learns about love, loss, friendship and the right way to handle mice.