Mad to live mad to talk mad to be saved...18-year-old Samantha Brown sits in a hand-me-down car with the keys clutched in her hand. Caught between a yearning for the unknown and feeling bound by expectation she telescopes back to a time before her world had fallen apart. As she relives her senior year we meet Sam's well-intentioned helicopter mother Bev and her high school sweetheart of a boyfriend Adam but it's her painfully alive best friend Kelly that haunts her. Kelly was everything Sam is not impetuous and daring. She pushed Sam to break rules and do the unexpected. When Kelly's killed in a car wreck Sam loses not only her best friend but also the part of herself that was learning to be brave. Now Sam has to make a decision. Will she follow her mother's dreams for her or will she summon the courage to drive away from her friends and family into a future she can't imagine?