In third grade, Mia rewrites math problems in their correct colors on the blackboard and her classmates call her a freak.

At a grocery store, a five-year-old boy named Billy tells Mia that her name is purple with orange stripes.

Mia confesses to her parents that she sees colors, and they are shocked but agree to seek medical help.

The family doctor is stumped by Mia's description of her colors and refers her to a psychotherapist.

Psychotherapist Ms. Finn suspects Mia is lying for attention and refers her to neurologist Dr. Jerry Weiss.

Dr. Jerry Weiss meets with Mia and diagnoses her with synesthesia, assuring her that nothing is wrong with her.

Jerry gives Mia access to an online synesthesia forum where she begins email correspondence with a boy named Adam.

At a Thanksgiving synesthesia meetup hosted by Jerry, Adam kisses Mia on a bench outside the building.

Thunder wakes Mia after the meetup and she finds Mango cold and motionless outside the front door.

As the family rushes Mango to the vet in a helicopter, Mia realizes he has stopped breathing and died.

After Mango's death, Mia's synesthesia disappears completely, leaving her world drained of all color.

Jenna calls on her birthday and accuses Mia of prioritizing synesthetes over their friendship before Mia can explain about Mango.

Adam emails saying Mia should have attended the second meetup day despite her cat dying, and Mia decides he is a jerk.

Billy's mother visits Mia's home, finally ready to learn about synesthesia, and Mia's colors return as she explains the condition.

At a Hanukkah party, Mia discovers a kitten fathered by Mango and decides to adopt it, planning to name it Mustard.

From the moment classmates call Mia a freak for rewriting numbers in their correct colors, she buries her secret for years. A chance meeting with a young boy who also sees colors pushes her to finally confess to her parents, setting off a chain of medical appointments that ends with neurologist Jerry Weiss diagnosing her with synesthesia. Armed with a name for her experiences, Mia embraces her identity and eagerly connects with other synesthetes, culminating in a meetup where she shares her first kiss with a boy named Adam. That same night, Mia neglects to check on her ailing cat Mango, who slips outside during a storm and dies in her arms before the family can reach a vet. Mango's death erases her synesthesia, shatters her friendship with Jenna, and reveals Adam's indifference, but helping a young boy named Billy and his mother ultimately restores both her colors and her sense of self.

Mia's journey from secret to diagnosis to devastating loss and recovery.

After the classroom incident, Mia lies and tells everyone she invented the colors, resolving to keep her secret forever.

Zack turns up all of Mia's clock alarms at once, overwhelming her with a cascade of colors and shapes.

Mia finishes her painting of her grandfather and leaves it at his grave, where it is caught in the rain.

Mia takes Mango for a routine vet checkup and witnesses Roger's family in the next room euthanizing their golden retriever.

Mia tells Jenna about her colors on the weekend and Jenna accuses her of hiding things, then leaves in tears.

Mia goes to Jenna's house to reconcile but discovers Jenna told their friend Kimberly about her colors without permission.

At school, classmates bombard Mia with questions about their name colors until she retreats to hide in the bathroom.

Mia secretly writes math formulas in color code on her jeans to cheat on a quiz and receives an A.

Mia takes a hot bath while listening to music and sees the sounds reflected as vivid shapes in the steam.

Roger takes Mia to the acupuncture clinic and she sees multicolored shapes appearing without any sound to trigger them.

At a community food drive, Mia approaches Billy's mother to explain synesthesia but is curtly dismissed.

Mia's history group presents their project on the slave ship and the teacher hangs Mia's painting in the classroom.

After Mango's death, Beth and Zack arrange a healing circle for Mia, but she insists they cannot understand her grief.

The family holds a memorial service for Mango and Mia initially refuses to attend before running out to join them.

After Billy and his mother leave, Mia's mother reveals that Mia's grandmother also had synesthesia.

After lying her way out of the third-grade blackboard incident, Mia spends years hiding her colors while navigating a complicated family life and the pressures of starting eighth grade. Key smaller moments define her journey: her clocks overwhelming her with colors, finishing a painting for her grandfather, and watching helplessly as Roger's family euthanizes their dog at the vet. As Mia learns about synesthesia, her relationships fray — Jenna reacts badly to the secret, then betrays Mia's trust by telling Kimberly, while classmates turn Mia's condition into an invasive curiosity. Mia both stumbles and surprises herself, cheating on a math test using color code, seeking out acupuncture sessions behind her parents' backs, and ultimately delivering a strong history presentation despite forgetting her painting at home. The loss of Mango brings grief to the whole family, and it is only after a memorial service, a healing circle, and a quiet revelation about Mia's grandmother that the household begins to find its footing again.

The quieter moments, strained friendships, and small discoveries that shape Mia's year.

Beth returns home from a California summer program noticeably changed, now kinder and passionate about herbs and nature.

After meeting Billy, Mia spends a restless night wondering whether he truly sees colors or is just an imaginative child.

Mia and Jenna cross paths at the cemetery and Mia carelessly mentions her own mother while Jenna is still grieving.

Eighth grade begins and Mia struggles in Spanish and pre-algebra, resolving on the bus home to try to be normal.

In art class, Mia discovers Kandinsky's abstract paintings and recognizes shapes that match what she sees when she hears music.

Mia's parents wake her early to tell her she does not have a brain tumor before her neurology appointment.

At a second visit to Jerry's lab, Mia learns that traumatic events can temporarily dull or erase a person's synesthesia.

Adam, a fourteen-year-old boy from the synesthesia forum, sends Mia his first email and the two begin corresponding.

Mia visits Jenna's house and unexpectedly meets Rebecca, Jenna's father's new girlfriend, sitting at the breakfast table.

During her second acupuncture session an electric current is added to the needles and Mia's color clouds return far more powerfully.

Arriving home after the second acupuncture session, Mia sees vivid mango-colored trails on the floor showing every path Mango has walked.

After Mango's memorial, Mia runs to her grandfather's grave and realizes she never truly mourned him while Mango was alive.

Jenna finds Mia at her grandfather's grave and apologizes for the phone call, but Mia says Jenna cannot understand her pain.

Telling Roger in gym class that her cat died, Mia learns for the first time that Roger is color-blind.

After Jerry suggests creativity might help, Mia examines her grandfather's painting and notices his expression now looks peaceful and content.

Mia's year is defined less by big events than by the quiet revelations that shift her understanding of herself and the people around her. Her sister Beth returns from California transformed, and a restless night after meeting Billy forces Mia to seriously consider for the first time that she may not be the only one who sees colors. An uncomfortable encounter with Jenna at the cemetery and the disorienting start of eighth grade push Mia toward action, and art class gives her a flash of recognition in the abstract shapes of Kandinsky. As Mia pursues acupuncture and grows obsessed with synesthesia, she overlooks warning signs closer to home — including Mango's quiet deterioration — and her grief after losing him forces a reckoning she has been avoiding since her grandfather died. The closing revelations — Roger's color-blindness, the peaceful expression in her grandfather's portrait, and the mustard-colored meow of a tiny kitten — signal that Mia is finally ready to stop living in the past.

The discoveries, emotional shifts, and decisions that change how Mia sees herself and others.