When Leticia returns to her family's apartment, she hears her mother's scream. Gabriel, her brother, has jumped out of the window and isn't breathing. As the family heals from Gabriel's death, Leticia's father takes to the bottle, her mother files for disability, and her sister Adriana partakes in risky behavior. Leticia gets a job at a clothing store, working long shifts trying to keep her family together. Adriana comes home most nights and tells Leticia about her sexual escapades, but when Adriana needs an abortion, Leticia gives her younger sister her savings for school. Leticia finds work at a crystal shop and enrolls in a community college. There, she meets Mark, a Master's student at Columbia studying astrophysics. When he first comes in, they talk about Mark's fascination with the stars, and Leticia admits to her fascination with rocks. She tells him that Gabriel was the family's star. Mark returns to the store often and asks Leticia about all the different crystals. One night, he walks her to the subway, and Leticia is sure she's in love. They meet each others' parents, both somewhat confused by their children dating people from such different worlds. Despite their parents' differences, on a trip to Hawaii, Mark proposes to Leticia at the Mauna Kea observatory. The now-engaged couple walks down towards the crater. The ranger had advised against it, but the two continue on towards the lava flows. Leticia, now in the path of said lava, crouches down to greet it. She feels something pop onto her skin as her right shoe melts into the ground. She reaches to take off the shoe, but the lava splatters onto her hand, and the world goes dark as she's pulled away. As she recovers, Mark's patience runs out. His eternal optimism, largely due to his own privilege, drives a wedge between them. Leticia moves back home. Adriana re-gifts Leticia a zen garden she got from the boss she's sleeping with, but Leticia holds most precious the rock she took from Mauna Kea the day before her accident. She scratches at the volcanic rock until she bleeds.