Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life with her mother, a compulsive hoarder, and had little contact with the outside world. Bun and her mother rarely talk, so when Bun's mother tells Bun to leave one day, she does. Hitchhiking out of town, Bun ends up on the streets of St. John's, Newfoundland, where she meets Busker Boy, a street musician who takes her in. Together they live in a house with an eclectic cast of characters, and Bun gets to learn the world beyond the walls of her mother's house.