It's summer 1969, an American college town. First grade and futures ahead of them, sisters discover, too late, how they loved each other then.
Jenny and Stacy are the ice princesses' daughters. They're going to "that new experimental school" for first grade.
Matt and Dominique's parents are paying full tuition to a private school in town for their children's first grade, in spite of pointed commentary on "such a racist choice" from their neighbor, the psychiatrist.
She's Linda's mother and has promised herself she'll practice again once LInda's satisfactorily educated by the local public school for free.
And the space race is on, the college full of dissident thinkers, long haired students, and wannabe Berkeleyesque untenured faculty.
All that the children want to do, all they know to do, because they are still innocent and unaware, is play, every day, in the shady hideout of a wonderful "bush tree" in Matt's side yard.
As man walks on the moon, summer ends. One of their group mysteriously leaves the neighborhood without saying goodbye. Another, the unlikeliest one, tries to find him, forcing both children and parents to face fears of separation, society, and love in ways they never expected of their small town existence..