Quentin Jacobsen - Q to his friends - is eighteen and has always loved the edgy Margo Roth Spiegelman.

As children they'd discovered a dead body together. Now at high school, Q's nerdy while Margo is uber-cool. One night, Q is basking in the predictable boringness of his life when Margo, dressed as a ninja, persuades him to participate in several hours of mayhem. Then she vanishes.

While her family shrugs off this latest disappearance, Q follows Margo's string of elaborate clues - including a poem about death. Q's friends, Radar, Ben and Lacey, help with the search, and a post turns up on a website: Margo will be in a certain location for the next 24 hours only. The race is on! After an epic drive through the night, they catch up a with Margo, and Q learns first-hand that the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are.