Rudy and Jacob Carges are two twin boys who are best friends, yet completely different. Rudy is athletic, brave and charismatic while his twin Jacob is quiet, timid and deeply affected by the unsightly birthmark on his face. Malee, a precocious only child of a single, emotionally detached mother, and Leonard, an overweight boy from an obese family, make up the twins’ close-knit group of friends. When Rudy dies in a fire, Jacob, Malee and Leonard each deal with this tragic event in different ways. Malee, who thinks that she is mature enough to deal with her feelings on her own, becomes obsessively fascinated with one of her mother’s patients, Gus. Leonard loses his sense of taste and proceeds to adopt a strict diet and exercise regime, which he tries to force onto his family as well. Jacob, who feels that he let his brother down by not going with him that night to the tree house, must deal with his own guilt, anger and feelings of inadequacy and betrayal…
