Cricket experiences the hardships of having a single mom and having to be more independent and responsible than her teammates. Her soccer coach teaches her to use visualization as a tool for success. At night, visualizing successful plays and saves turns into her visualizing the future she wants: a spot on the National Team, stadiums full of screaming fans, and Olympic gold medals.

Now a senior in high school, Mia meets with a local Yale alum as part of the school’s application process. She sees herself as an unlikely Ivy League candidate, thinking she’s nothing special compared to Cricket. Mia tells the alum her summer plans involve taking Cricket to all her soccer tournaments so Liz can work. The alum is impressed by Mia’s selflessness.

Mia is accepted to Yale, and the family celebrates at Primo Bistro. Cricket feels overwhelming admiration for her sister and Mia feels, for the first time, that she’s special too. Cricket tells Mia she plans to keep visualizing their lives so everything will always be this awesome.

On the day Liz and Cricket are supposed to drive Mia to the dorms at Yale, they pretend they can no longer go with her as part of a surprise. Mia is disappointed and a bit resentful, feeling that her life is less important to them. Then Liz gives Mia her gift, a car, and says she and Cricket wouldn’t miss the trip for the world. The playlist they’ve made for the drive is titled “Family MVP.”

Mia loves Yale, though she feels guilty she’s not home helping Liz and Cricket. While working at the campus library, she researches her mother’s high school soccer career and finds a news photo identifying her father as Richard Quimby, Liz’s high school team coach. Mia finds many other allegations of Q having sexual relationships with teen players. She’s furious and feels betrayed, which leads her to separate her sense of identity from her mother.

Mia is home for the summer and maintaining a long-distance relationship with Ben, whom she’s been dating since February. She avoids interacting with Liz as much as possible until Liz comes home from work one night with a gift from appreciative customers: three tickets to the World Cup Quarter-Finals.

Liz, Mia, and Cricket fly to Paris for the Quarter-Finals game between the US and France. They arrive the day of the game and will leave the next day, staying one night in a hostel because they can’t afford anything more expensive. The Lowes are overjoyed when the US team wins. During the flight home, Mia reveals she knows the truth about Q. Liz is stunned but she collects herself and offers to answer Mia’s questions.

Liz admits she considered an abortion but she loved Q and knew she’d love Mia even more. She didn’t learn that he preyed on other girls until much later. When he came to Maine the summer Mia was four, he said he’d left his wife and wanted to start over with Liz. She kicked him out when she learned he was an alcoholic and had been hiding his drinking from her, even driving drunk with both her and Mia in the car.

At 37, Liz feels the freedom of both daughters being busy with their lives and is even considering dating. Her future looks bright. At an intersection, an SUV going 50 mph runs a red light and hits her. The important moments and happiest memories of Liz’s life flash through her mind before she dies.

Mia is on campus when she learns her mother is dead. In shock and unable to believe it’s real, she tells herself to wake up over and over as she drives to Massachusetts where Cricket is playing a tournament. Mia pulls Cricket aside during the game to give her the terrible news.

A lawyer comes to meet with Mia and Cricket at their home the next day. He’s married to Liz’s coworker so he knows the family, but none of the Lowes can stand him. Coach is there for moral support at Cricket’s request. Liz’s will names Mia as Cricket’s official guardian and says Mia and Cricket will share all her assets. Mia decides she’ll leave school and return to Maine to support Cricket until she graduates.

Mia and Cricket resume going to the beach together every morning. Cricket talks about attending UCLA after high school, as Liz once planned to do. Mia receives little support or contact from her college friends, including Ben. On the beach, the sisters talk about Liz and tell each other things are going to be okay.

Six weeks after Liz’s death, Mia is working for Dr. Wilkins, a local veterinarian. Her ambition has waned and now all she wants is an ordinary, predictable life. College no longer seems important. She’s at her best, she decides, when supporting others.

In the spring of 2020, the stress and isolation of the Covid pandemic add to Mia’s grief and her sense that life has become unrecognizable.

Cricket, now a sophomore, welcomes the pain and exhaustion brought on by Coach’s new beep test, which assesses players’ physical and psychological endurance, as a distraction from her grief. She pushes herself and outperforms the rest of the team. Cricket feels Liz’s presence and even sees her every time she’s on the soccer field, but decides not to tell Mia.