Marcelo Sandoval hears music that no one else can hear—part of an autism-like impairment that no doctor has been able to identify. He's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom to experience "the real world."

There, Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file—a picture of a girl with half a face—that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

This extraordinary novel is a love story, a legal drama, and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.