Tibby, Carmen, Bridget and Lena in the months following their first year of college. Having been apart all year, their plans for the summer will take them even further along separate paths as each experiences the freedom, love, choices and challenging life lessons that mark their individual journeys toward adulthood.
Now, it will take more than a hurried note or even a treasured pair of pants passed back and forth among them to keep their lives connected. Feeling displaced at home with her mother expecting a new baby, and disappointed that her friends opted to spend the summer away, Carmen accepts a chance invitation to work backstage at a theater festival in Vermont. There, she surprisingly finds herself thrust into the spotlight for the very first time and simultaneously becomes the focus of the play’s handsome young leading man.
Tibby, meanwhile, remains in New York City to wrap an NYU film project while cautiously taking her relationship with Brian McBrian to the next level. When an unexpected crisis complicates everything, she must finally face her fear of getting close if she wants to let love in.
Bridget, still struggling with the loss of her mother and questions about her past, travels to Turkey for an archeological dig before realizing that the truths she needs to uncover are buried closer to home.
And Lena, separated from first love Kostas and studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, meets a free-spirited fellow art student who forces her to choose between holding on to her memories or mending her heart and pursuing an exciting new love.
For Tibby, Carmen, Bridget and Lena, communication was always as easy as breathing. Now, new priorities and rapid changes make it harder for them to keep in touch. Messages are sometimes missed… or misunderstood.