Henry Rufus Bragg is a seventeen-year-old boy who lives with his family in Alabama. The offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon has just sprung a leak in the Gulf, and the EPA has set up shop at Dauphin Island.

Henry's father owns a marina, which Henry has worked at in past summers. This summer, however, Henry works as a volunteer and monitors Mobile Bay in his boat. He looks for signs of oil in the water. Henry spends his lunch hours at his father's marina, where he grabs a hamburger and has the chance to see Dana Pint, a girl he has a crush on.

On some Friday afternoons, Henry visits the houseboat of an old man who rents a slip from Henry's father. They drink beer together and chat about Henry's deep concern over the oil spill as well as Henry's interest in Dana Pint. Dana is nineteen and a junior college dropout. She has a boyfriend named Pat, but Henry feels intensely attracted to Dana's sad, angry allure. One afternoon, Henry asks Dana to come for a ride on his boat. She agrees to join him on Saturday.

Henry's dad finds Henry in his room that evening. Henry watches the live footage of the Deepwater Horizon as it spills into the Gulf. His father tells him that he, too, is worried. Henry secretly worries not about the oil but about his boat ride with Dana. He fantasizes about driving them south in his boat, out into the Gulf, until they run out of gas. He imagines how they'd lay together under the stars at night as they waited to be rescued, how they'd comfort each other with their bodies.