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Content Warning: Self-harm is mentioned below.
Charlie Davis sits mute and bandaged in a rehab center for girls who self-harm. About two weeks earlier, her bloody body had been left on a hospital lawn, wrapped in a sheet. Now, she is in Creeley Center, a rehab facility for young women. Casper, the rehab therapist, takes a group of girls through breathing exercises and encourages them to communicate their trauma. Charlie’s roommate Louisa is beautiful and kind, and she writes ceaselessly in notebooks. Since Charlie can’t sleep, she takes online classes at night. The night nurse, Barbero, and Jen S., a patient, supervise her computer sessions. In a tension-filled group session, Charlie nearly gets into a physical fight with another patient named Blue, but Blue acknowledges that Charlie understands exactly how she feels. Later that day, Charlie gets her bandages removed and begins to speak again.
Charlie takes advantage of a napping Barbero and an absent Jen S. to use an online chat tool to contact her friend Mikey, a romantic interest from high school. Barbero wakes up, shuts her computer down, and goes off to find Jen S., who was having relations with Doc Dooley, the rehab’s young, attractive medical resident. After Jen S. gets kicked out for this transgression, Louisa warns Charlie that girls like them are damaged and unlovable. Casper and the crafts teacher give Charlie some drawing materials, and she rediscovers her interest in something she once loved to help process her feelings. One night, Mikey shows up in the parking lot and writes Charlie a message on a piece of paper that he holds over his head. She reads it through the window—“Don’t you die”—until security chases him off.
While in rehab, Charlie reflects on her past. She remembers that her father was a depressed alcoholic who drowned himself, causing her mother to become abusive. Then she considers how, during her time in high school, her poverty marked her as an outcast until Ellis, a new girl, showed up and became Charlie’s best friend. She fondly remembers hanging out with Ellis and Mikey, drinking and listening to music, until Ellis started dating the “wolf boy,” who had teeth that reminded Charlie of a wolf. For a while, Charlie lived with Ellis, but Ellis’s parents found the wolf boy’s drugs, and Ellis blamed Charlie, resulting in Charlie being kicked out of the house. One of Charlie’s biggest regrets is that Ellis, full of remorse, cut herself deeply and ended up nearly brain-dead due to blood loss. Charlie is also plagued by memories of homelessness, such as being attacked in an underpass and saved by two homeless boys named Evan and Dump. She is still scarred by her time at Seed House, where she, Evan, and Dump sought shelter and where they met F****** Frank, a drug dealer who tried to force Charlie into sex work. At Seed House, Charlie attempted to kill herself by cutting her arms. Evan and Dump found her and took her to the hospital, where they left her on the lawn.
When Charlie can no longer afford rehab at Creeley Center, her mother gives her a bus ticket to Tucson, where Mikey, whom Charlie still has a crush on, has volunteered to look after her. Mikey’s job as a roadie means he cannot help her day to day, but Charlie manages to get her own apartment and a job at True Grit, a local coffee shop. At True Grit, Charlie finds a supportive group of friends and coworkers. Touched by Charlie’s story, Julie, the owner of True Grit, gives her a lapis lazuli stone for healing. Linus, the shop manager, helps her learn the ropes of the job. Tanner, Linus’s brother and an aspiring EMT, is sympathetic to Charlie’s financial troubles. Charlie also meets Julie’s brother Riley, the line cook at True Grit and an attractive local musician who has slipped into addiction. Riley and Charlie develop a strong connection, but Charlie is still focused on winning over Mikey.
When Mikey returns to Tucson from a trip, he invites Charlie to a party, where he introduces his girlfriend, Bunny. Devastated by the revelation that Mikey is in a relationship, Charlie reaches out to Casper at Creeley Center for help managing her emotions, but Blue, who emails her, better understands what she is going through. Riley seems sick at work, and he asks Charlie to pick up drugs from his dealer, Wendy. She does, and Charlie and Riley begin a sexual relationship, which she hopes will motivate him to stop using, but it doesn’t. Dedicating all her free time to Riley, Charlie spends less time on her art, despite the fact that Ariel, Mikey’s landlady and a professional artist, offers her free lessons. Through Riley, Charlie meets Tiger Dean, Riley’s old bandmate, who convinces the band to get back together for a benefit concert.
At work, Julie accuses Charlie of stealing money and catches Riley and Charlie having sex in her office. Furious, Julie reassigns Charlie to the night shift. While trying to reassure Charlie that everything is fine, Riley finds her tender kit, which she uses to cut and bandage herself. The two nearly come to blows because Riley doesn’t understand Charlie’s motivation to self-harm and they both lose their temper. A few days later, Charlie finds out that Mikey and Bunny are married, which causes her to have a panic attack. Riley picks up Charlie’s shifts at True Grit and lets her stay with him for several days. In an effort to regain control over her life and dedicate more time to her art, Charlie submits her work to a local gallery, which offers to include the drawings in an upcoming show. As she prepares for the gallery show, Riley continues his downward spiral, and Charlie celebrates her 18th birthday alone.
A few days before the gallery show, Blue arrives in Tucson. While Charlie is happy to see her, she is also intimidated by her outgoing nature, her ease around Riley, and her excessive drinking. Riley tells Charlie that he doesn’t like her having a roommate, and Charlie accuses him of isolating her and caring only about getting drunk and high. The gallery show opens the same day as All Souls, a festival to celebrate the dead. On her way to the gallery, Charlie finds Blue smoking crack at Riley’s, distressed because she found out that Louisa intentionally set herself on fire and burned to death. Charlie then walks in on Riley and Wendy having sex in the kitchen, and Riley shoves Charlie up against the wall, insisting she see him for who he really is. Charlie stumbles through the All Souls crowd in a fog. When she returns home, Wendy has trashed her apartment, and Charlie chugs whisky from the bottle and cuts herself, rolling in shards of glass before blacking out.
She wakes to Linus and Tanner taking her to the home of their grandfather Felix, a successful artist in Santa Fe. As she recovers at Felix’s, Charlie sketches a comic book version of her life and feels more comfortable in her own skin. Linus, Tanner, and Charlie return to Tucson and help Julie rebuild True Grit. Blue has fixed up Charlie’s apartment, and the two pledge sobriety and sisterhood. Felix calls and invites Charlie to be his assistant at his studio. Before Charlie leaves, she goes to see Riley’s band perform at the benefit concert, and he apologizes by performing a song he wrote for her. Afterwards, she boards a plane to New York, where she’ll meet Felix before flying with him to Santa Fe. As she settles into her seat, Charlie imagines updating Ellis on her new life.
