Cassandra Williams is twelve; her brother, Wayne Williams, is seven. Together, the two have an unbreakable bond buoyed by their very strong relationship. They are inseparable. One day, however, when the two are playing together, an accident occurs. Cassandra is left unharmed, but Wayne is lost forever. And despite her family and authorities’ best efforts, Wayne's body is never recovered.
Wayne's disappearance forever fractures Cassandra's family. On one hand, Cassandra's father quickly leaves his family and meets another woman, with whom he starts another family with. On the other hand, Cassandra's mother becomes consumed with grief and dedicates her life to her organization, whose goal is to find missing children. This leaves Cassandra to deal with her grief mostly alone. Her mother is physically present with her, but mentally not all there. As a result, Cassandra (who begins to be called "C") begins to see her brother's face all over: in the airplanes she flies on, in shops, in the subway, and seemingly everywhere else she goes.
Wayne has been missing for years, Cassandra says. Initially, Cassandra does not believe that the faces she is seeing is truly her brother. After all, that is not physically possible. However, Cassandra one day meets a man who looks eerily similar to Wayne. Perplexed, she approaches the man and quickly learns from him that the two are a lot alike. Like Cassandra, the man is searching for how he fits into the world. Most significantly, though, the man's name is Wayne—her brother Wayne, most likely. The two speak and start to learn more about each other and how their lives had gone. Eventually, though, Cassandra discovers that her experience with Wayne is still her grief talking. Wayne is most likely dead and is never coming back.
