Genie and his older brother Ernie arrive in rural Virginia to spend a summer with their rarely-seen paternal grandparents.

At their first breakfast together, Genie discovers that his grandfather Brooke has become completely blind from glaucoma.

Genie and Ernie's parents drive away from Virginia, leaving the boys to spend the month with their grandparents.

Genie and Ernie meet Tess, a local girl who lives at the bottom of the hill near their grandparents' house.

Brooke admits to Genie that he rarely leaves the house because his blindness leaves him vulnerable to unseen outdoor dangers.

Running out of dead flies, Genie feeds one of Brooke's caged barn swallows apple seeds instead.

Genie goes to feed the birds and discovers the swallow he gave apple seeds to has died.

Genie and Ernie explore an abandoned house in the woods but find no barn swallows there to catch as a replacement.

Brooke reveals to Crab that he knows Crab has been underpaying him, then demands Crab teach Ernie to shoot.

Crab taunts Ernie for being afraid, and Ernie agrees to the shooting lesson to save face in front of Tess.

Ernie fires Brooke's revolver and the gun's recoil slams into his face, knocking out three of his teeth.

Grandmother rushes Ernie to the hospital, where a doctor successfully re-implants two of his three knocked-out teeth.

After catching Brooke drinking on a late-night walk, Grandmother throws the pieces of his dismantled gun into the trash.

Genie's father and Brooke finally confront each other directly about Wood's death and manage to reconcile.

Genie confesses to Brooke about accidentally killing the bird, and Brooke reveals he has known about it for weeks.

Genie and his older brother Ernie travel to rural Virginia to spend a summer with their paternal grandparents, a family they barely know due to a long estrangement rooted in the death of their Uncle Wood. On their very first morning, Genie is shocked to discover that his grandfather Brooke has gone completely blind and rarely leaves the house. The boys settle into life on the hill, and Genie grows closer to Brooke through nightly conversations, while a crisis quietly builds after Genie accidentally kills one of Brooke's prized caged swallows and fails to find a replacement. Tension peaks when Brooke pressures Ernie to participate in the family shooting ritual on his fourteenth birthday, and the gun's recoil knocks out three of Ernie's teeth. In the painful aftermath, Genie's father and Brooke are finally forced to confront the grief and blame they have carried for years over Wood's death. The summer closes with confession, forgiveness, and a fragile but genuine reconciliation across generations.

The central story of family estrangement, a blind grandfather, and a dangerous shooting ritual.

Genie finds a toy fire truck in the guest bedroom that once belonged to his deceased Uncle Wood.

Grandmother accidentally steps on Wood's model fire truck in the dark, breaking one of its wheels off.

Tess takes the boys to a local bar and tricks them into thinking they are drinking real beer, which is actually ginger beer.

During a thunderstorm that knocks out the power, Brooke pulls out a harmonica and plays music for the family.

Grandmother establishes a daily chore routine for the boys, including picking peas to sell and cleaning up after the dog.

Crab arrives to pay Brooke for hunting rights on his land and drops off dead flies for the caged birds.

Genie goes with his grandmother to the local flea market, where he searches unsuccessfully for a replacement wheel for the truck.

At the flea market, the boys meet Binks, an eccentric man who sells teeth he claims belonged to famous people.

Ernie and Tess develop a mutual crush over the weeks the boys spend at their grandparents' Virginia home.

Brooke tells Genie that the shooting ritual began after a Black teenager was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

Genie buys a tooth purportedly from Bruce Lee at the market as a good-luck charm for his injured brother.

Tess gives Ernie one of her mother's medical face masks so he can cover his chipped and missing teeth.

Genie spots a button at Tess's house that resembles the broken truck wheel and uses it to repair the toy.

Before the family leaves Virginia, Ernie places his chipped tooth in the house as a good-luck charm for his grandparents.

As the family prepares to leave, Genie finds the original broken piece from Uncle Wood's toy fire truck.

From their first nights in Virginia, Genie and Ernie are immersed in a tight-knit rural community very different from their Brooklyn home, full of quirky characters and unspoken histories. They encounter the eccentric tooth-seller Binks, endure Tess's elaborate ginger beer prank, and hear Brooke play harmonica by candlelight during a thunderstorm. Their grandmother puts them to work on daily chores and brings them to the local flea market, where Genie hunts fruitlessly for a replacement wheel for Uncle Wood's broken toy fire truck. After Ernie's shooting accident, small acts of kindness and creative problem-solving help the brothers cope with guilt and embarrassment — Tess offering a face mask, Genie buying a lucky tooth, and a button serving as the truck wheel's unlikely stand-in. The pool ends as the family prepares to leave Virginia, with the boys quietly leaving pieces of themselves behind and Genie stumbling upon the original broken wheel at the very last moment.

The everyday moments, community encounters, and small acts of repair that shape the brothers' summer.

Genie's father explains that Brooke insisted on keeping his blindness a secret until the boys could meet him in person.

Brooke invites Genie into his locked sunroom sanctuary, a space filled with caged barn swallows, plants, and artificial grass.

Brooke and Genie take a barefoot nighttime walk outside, and Brooke shows Genie the snakebite scar on his ankle.

Genie researches online and confirms that apple seeds contain cyanide, proving he accidentally poisoned Brooke's bird.

Genie and Ernie sneak the dead swallow out of its cage and dispose of the body in the surrounding woods.

Grandmother reveals that Brooke's father, overwhelmed by guilt over a friend's death, took his own life in a nearby river.

Genie, Ernie, and Tess build a live bird trap near the abandoned house in the woods to catch a replacement swallow.

The boys call their parents, and Brooke tries to get on the phone to speak with his estranged son but fails.

Grandmother wakes the boys before dawn on Ernie's birthday to celebrate with fireworks before the shooting lesson begins.

In the woods before Ernie's turn, Brooke fires a few rounds from his revolver just to feel the experience of shooting again.

Grandmother shows Genie and Ernie the Purple Heart medal Uncle Wood received, telling them Wood was brave even though he was afraid.

Brooke removes his signature sunglasses to give to Ernie, revealing his clouded blind eyes to his grandson for the first time.

Genie and Tess discover a barn swallow caught in their homemade trap, but Genie accidentally lets the bird escape.

Brooke tells Genie how his father betrayed a friend to their landlord, an act that led to the friend dying in a house fire.

Genie's parents arrive at the grandparents' house unexpectedly early, and Genie reads his mother's expression and believes his parents will stay together.

Beneath the surface of the brothers' summer, a series of private revelations and quiet decisions reshape how Genie sees the adults around him. Brooke gradually opens up — first by sharing the locked sunroom he uses as an indoor substitute for the outside world, then by venturing out into the yard at night, and finally by revealing a family history of guilt that stretches back generations through his own father's betrayal of a friend. Genie's own sense of responsibility deepens as he confirms he killed Brooke's swallow, conspires with Ernie to hide the evidence, and then fails to catch a wild replacement despite building an elaborate trap with Tess. The shooting ritual becomes the summer's breaking point, exposing both Ernie's hidden fear and Brooke's inability to let go of an identity built on firearms and strength. In the resolution, Brooke surrenders the symbols of his old self — his sunglasses and his gun — and Genie's careful reading of his mother's face on her early return brings the summer to a close with quiet, hard-won hope.

The discoveries, secrets, and quiet turning points that transform Genie's understanding of his family.