Five Feet Apart

 

FIVE FEET APART

 

WHAT'S THE STORY?

FIVE FEET APART is about two teens with cystic fibrosis (CF) dealing with first love and the uncertainty of their futures. Stella's an organized achiever who has her life in order and manages her medications and treatments efficiently. Will's the total opposite. 

He's a rule breaker tired of medications, hospitalizations, and drug trials for B. cepacia, the bacteria he's contracted that's complicating his CF. When Stella and Will first meet on the CF ward, they infuriate each other, but in true opposites-attract fashion, romance eventually blooms. 

The bacteria infecting Will is easily transmitted and drug resistant, and it drastically shortens the already short life span of CF patients. Because of these factors, he has to stay six feet away from the other patients on the ward. 

This is especially important for Stella, as she is waiting for a lung transplant. As the two teens work through the physical barriers to a relationship, they're also working through emotional barriers: the ones that keep them from enjoying normal teen life and activities. 

They grapple with tough decisions and the way their illnesses have had an impact on their families. Balancing the desire to live a carefree life with the responsibility of taking care of themselves presents an ongoing and difficult battle. They hope to fight together, but they might not get to make that call.

PLOT SUMMARY

Five Feet Apart documents the two weeks over which Stella Grant and Will Newman, both cystic fibrosis patients at Saint Grace’s Hospital, fall in love amid a physical separation that does not allow them to touch. 

A regular patient at Saint Grace’s since age six, Stella sees the hospital as a second home filled with childhood memories. Will, a new addition to Saint Grace’s, has experienced life in hospitals around the world under the controlling nature of his wealthy single mother. 

A rule-follower, Stella attempts to maintain a rigorous medical routine intended to ensure her survival in the aftermath of her older sister Abby’s sudden death. A rule-breaker, Will impatiently awaits his 18th birthday as a beacon of uncharted independence free from the tyranny of monotonous hospital life.