Theodore Finch and Violet Markey are two teenagers who live unhappily in a small Indiana town. Violet is quietly dealing with Survivor Guilt, and Finch is a loner, called a freak by other students. They meet on the bridge where her sister died in a car crash nine months ago. Violet survived the crash, and has not been in a car since. She finds herself standing on the ledge of the bridge on what would have been her sister’s nineteenth birthday. Finch climbs up next to her, talking her down from a possible suicide.All the Bright Places 2020. He starts a partnership with Violet for a school project for which they need to explore Indiana together. Later, at home, Finch looks up Violet on Facebook, researching her sister’s car accident, reading through Violet’s old writing, and chatting with her online. Finch and Violet travel around Indiana to see sites chosen by him for the project. She refuses to travel by car, so they bike to the highest point in Indiana. To visit a miniature roller coaster too far away to bike to, Violet agrees to get in his car. She returns to writing, for the first time since her sister’s death. He helps her talk about her sister, which no one else had managed to do. Violet slowly begins to heal. They fall in love. Finch, however, continues with erratic behavior. He sometimes disappears for days at a time without contacting anyone. One day, while he and Violet are swimming at the Blue Hole, he disappears under the water. By the time he resurfaces, Violet is distraught and pushes him to tell her more about himself, threatening to leave if he doesn’t comply. He reveals that he had been beaten by his father as a child, and that his mother is absent in his life. On one occasion, Finch and Violet stay out all night by accident, upsetting Violet’s parents. At school that day,