The girl sees her older sister driving up to her school in a yellow Mustang. Excitedly, she runs up to the street to greet her older sister—who’s coming home to visit—and hops into the passenger seat of her car. She thinks about how beautiful her older sister is. They drive off, and she hopes her bullies are jealous.

The older sister drives the girl to Taco Town, which is where the older sister’s ex used to work. Last summer, the older sister dumped him, saying that he really loved her. In a parking lot, they stop to eat and talk. The girl asks the older sister how long she’s saying, and she says that she may stay for good, as she’s considering dropping out of Jamestown. For a while, the girl has known about how much her older sister hates college from the letters she’s written to her. Three guys then pass them in the parking lot and cat-call the older sister. The girl thinks about how everyone probably wants her.

The girl thinks about how she and her older sister go by names that aren’t their birth names, specifically because they hated the ethnic and alienating quality about the names their parents gave them. Their father dislikes the name change, but the older sister insists on hers. The girl then thinks about their parents’ trauma, how their father has had a lifetime dealing with and running away from war, how their mother escaped from North Korea as a child. Both of their parents are in the United States because of the fall of Syngman Rhee’s regime. Since then, they’ve done somewhat of a decent job assimilating.

Through summer break, the older sister gets a job as a cashier at a record store. Meanwhile, the girl goes to summer school and tutors kids. By night, they hang out at a pool. While there, the older sister tells the girl not to tell their parents about her dropping out of school, as she plans to eventually tell them herself when the time is right. The girl says she should stay in college, to which the older sister says that she isn’t fit for it. Meanwhile, the girl laments that she’s a nobody at school, to which the older sister says that she’s incredibly smart and hardworking.

The girl thinks about how much she likes American Teen, which the older sister lightly makes fun of. The girl likes that magazine because it teaches her about a lot, things which she used to learn from her best friend before her best friend moved to Texas. On another pool day, the older sister attracts so much male attention, but she’s only looking out for her ex. She says she misses him, as her ex used to love her more than anyone has ever loved her before, so much so that he would do anything and everything she said. The girl then thinks about how perfect and divine her older sister is, how her older sister was blessed with charm while she herself was only blessed with smarts.

In the new issue of American Teen, an essay contest is announced, in which writers must write about what they dream on. The girl thinks about what she wants to write about. Eventually, the older sister finds out that her ex is playing guitar in a band. In the girl’s bedroom, the older sister talks about how her ex ignores her instead of chasing after her like he said he would. They soon hear their father’s footsteps down the house’s stairs, after which they hear him sobbing. The older sister goes to console him. They talk about how the father’s parents always demand money but never give appreciation, to which the older sister says to keep giving them money but never surrender his heart to them.

Eventually, the girl decides to write her American Teen essay about her older sister. By now, the older sister is stalking her ex all over the place, which prompts the girl to reach out to the ex herself and talk to him. Over the phone, the ex says that the older sister is crazy, that he was never actually into her, that they only went on a few dates.

One night, the older sister comes back home after a night out. Drunk, she berates the girl for calling her ex, which she thinks is a stupid idea. She then says that her American Teen magazine is stupid and that they’ll never choose her essay because she’s not a blonde with blue eyes and therefore not an American teen. Eventually, the older sister breaks down and admits that her ex never really liked her because she wasn’t good enough for a white man. She then passes out from her drunkenness.

In the morning, the older sister wakes up and doesn’t know what happened the night before. Her mood is instantly better, and they decide to go into her yellow Mustang to take a drive. The girl asks her where she’s taking her, to which she says that they’re going to a photobooth so that the girl can take her photo for the American Teen essay contest. For an hour, they can’t stop taking pictures together.