A woman leaves her family to live in a redwood forest by herself. This happened long ago. She has one daughter and every summer the father brings the daughter to the mother’s house to spend the summer there. They’ve done this for years, but now the daughter is 14. The opening scene is the father sitting in the car while the daughter stands at the head of a trail, waiting for the mother to appear. The father is angry because the mother is late. The daughter is starting to realize how unusual this arrangement is. Then the mother appears from the woods. They hike to her house together. The mother is a writer and a baker and jewelry maker, a general eccentric who is happy in her house in the woods. The daughter is starting to process that her mother left her and she doesn’t understand why. She’s angry. The mother starts to realize that she doesn’t know her daughter any more. As her daughter’s becoming a woman she’s becoming a different person. This is a critical juncture in their relationship. There’s a town below the woods. The daughter starts to explore the town on her own, meets a group of friends and has a crush on one boy in particular. Something happens with the friends and the boy that puts the daughter in danger and then the mother must come to her rescue, thus forcing a serious conversation about their relationship and how the daughter needs her mother. The daughter needs to know why the mother left and the mother explains. The summer ends with the daughter leaving as usual but with a new understanding of her mother. There is a distance that will always be between them and that will likely continue to grow, but they know each other better now. It’s unclear if the daughter will keep coming to the woods each summer. It is a bittersweet ending.