Summer Davis's deep love for science is the only thing that helps her get through her turbulent journey from adolescent to adulthood. Her mother has abandoned her family, her father's mental illness has overwhelmed him, and her older brother fluctuates between sudden rage and unpredictable tenderness. Summer can't help but question the role of genetics in her life and if she is destined to continue her family's legacy of mental instability.

But when she decides to put off a promising science career to take care of her great-aunt Stella--the bedrock of the family and bastion of folksy wisdom, irreverent insight, and Sinatra memorabilia in a less-than-scenic part of the Pennsylvanian countryside--she begins to learn that maybe her DNA doesn't have to define her and that her future belongs to her alone.

From the backwoods of Pennsylvania to the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights, The Visibles investigates the secrets of the past, and the hidden corners of our own hearts, to find out whether real happiness is a gift or a choice.