Skate Tate has just started middle school and everything is changing. Her friends and her school are different. Only her close-knit family seems the same. Great-Uncle Mort (GUM for short) is their center. GUM supports Skate's dream of becoming an artist, encourages her to embrace new experiences and occupies many pages in her precious scrapbooks. When GUM dies unexpectedly, Skate must deal with a very painful change. GUM leaves the Tates his fortune on one condition -- that they use it to travel and document their trips. On their first trip -- to Plymouth, MA -- Skate begins to sort out her feelings about his death and come to terms with her grief, accepting these changes as GUM would have wanted her to.