Louisa never knew her father, and her mother abandoned her when she was five. For years, she moved from one foster home to the next, and most of the homes were unsafe. In one house, the refrigerator was covered in postcards, one of which was of C. Jat’s painting. Louisa stole the postcard and signed it from her mother, who died of substance use, to pretend. When she met Fish in foster care, they bonded immediately, and Fish taught her to break into the movie theater, where she learned to speak English. 



Louisa carries the postcard of the painting in her backpack and has always dreamed of seeing the painting with Fish. The plan was to break into the exhibition just to look at it. When she overhears an older woman asking her husband to buy it, Louisa moves past the velvet ropes guarding the painting and draws a fish on the wall next to it. 

The older couple notices and mistakes Louisa for an employee. She says she doesn’t work there, and the man asks where her parents are. Louisa softens toward him since it was “nice” of him to think she had a family. They assume she is an “activist” and will destroy the painting, but Louisa has no such intention.

A security guard throws Louisa out of the building, and because she doesn’t like it when adults touch her, she fights back, spraying him with paint and biting his ear. He threatens to call the police, and she runs. As she flees, she thinks of the painting, which isn’t of the sea but three kids sitting at the end of a pier laughing at what she assumes was a fart. 

The painting speaks to her because she feels that only someone who has known pain could paint the feeling of laughter so clearly. She feels complete having seen it, and the image on the postcard has been a refuge and comfort for her. She noticed the artist had added skulls to the signature. Louisa collides with a man, hits her head, and faints.

The narrative shifts to 25 years in the past. It’s summer, and four 14-year-olds are sitting at the end of a pier trying to escape the heat and the oppressiveness of the sadness and violence in their lives. One of them is an artist, and his best friend Joar encourages him to enter an art contest, claiming that it will be the ticket to his fame. 

The artist isn’t interested in becoming famous and paints from inspiration, not on demand to win a contest. Joar encourages the artist to try because he may be the only one of them to make it out of their town and “shit lives.” The artist becomes famous, and Joar’s prophecy comes true because not all of the four friends survive.

In the present timeline, Louisa wakes up, feeling dizzy from the collision. The man tells her to be quiet, and she hides while he points the chasing guard in another direction. Louisa thinks the man is unhoused and that she is hiding in his shelter, where he lives with his cat. The man is ill and shaky, barely able to speak. 

When the contents of Louisa’s backpack spills, the man notices her passport and wishes her a happy early birthday, noting that she will turn 18 the next day. Touched by his kindness, Louisa cries and shares the story of Fish, explaining how she has been sleeping in cars since she ran away from foster care. The man responds, “I’m sorry.” 

In gratitude for his empathy, Louisa gives him the postcard and explains that the painting is the reason she was at the exhibit. The man shares tearfully that he has a substance use disorder and lost his job, which is why he is unhoused. He gestures to the brick wall and tells Louisa she should paint it. She spray-paints images of everything that happened that day. The man can barely hold the can, but with trembling hands, he paints too. Louisa is shocked when she sees his addition of skulls.

When the artist was 14, a summer he says “started and ended with death” (36), he drew skulls a lot. He also ran a lot because he and his friends lived near violence and were often running for their lives. The painting captures the moment after the four friends ran to the pier. Although many difficult things happened that summer, the painting was the artist’s way of capturing the good that did happen. Being with his friends was the only time the artist felt at home, and Joar knew how much he was struggling, which is why he insisted that the artist should create the painting. Joar said the artist would “live forever.”

The artist is now almost 40, but he is dying. He isn’t scared because he’s lived a remarkable life, but everything he has done and all his successes are shadowed by those he has lost and the guilt he carries for surviving. Art has been his only solace, and when people discuss his art, he doesn’t know how to tell them “that all his paintings are an attempt to show how beautiful he wishes he actually was” (43). Eventually, his pain overtook him, and he developed a substance use disorder. The artist isn’t unhoused, but he sold everything to buy one thing. 

The police arrive, and he tells Louisa to run. He is too sick to flee, and when the officer touches him, he sprays him with paint. A man named Ted emerges from the gallery, having been looking for the artist; Ted is caring for the artist while he is sick. Ted tells the police to release the artist, and the artist tells Ted to help Louisa escape.

Louisa takes refuge in a car and falls asleep. The artist wakes up in the hospital, and Ted is there, though the artist initially thinks that Ted is Joar, a mistake he often makes. Ted chastises the artist for not following their plan of meeting at the train station, but the artist wanted to have one last adventure because he is dying. 

Ted has known the artist since they were young and has always loved him. He attended the auction to purchase the painting for the artist, and now he hangs it on the hospital room wall. The artist jokes about his death, telling Ted what to put on his headstone. Ted climbs into the hospital bed and holds the artist as he takes his final breaths. The artist’s final wish is for Ted to find Louisa and give her the painting.