Drawing on her own experiences as an inheritor of the BRCA gene, author Sarah Scheerger weaves a sensitive meditation on life and death into an uplifting story of an unconventional family.

Eighteen-year-old Cayenne barely remembers her mother, who died of breast cancer when Cayenne was four. The women in her family have a history of dying young. Cayenne figures she'll meet the same fate, so she might as well enjoy life now, engaging in death-defying risks like dodging trains and jumping off cliffs with her boyfriend.

But then Aunt Tee, who raised her, tests positive for a BRCA gene mutation-the same one that doomed Cayenne's mom. Tee decides to get a mastectomy to reduce her chances of developing cancer. As Cayenne helps her aunt prepare for surgery, she begins to question what it means to live life to the fullest, even when death might be written into your DNA.