It's 1977. Seventeen-year-old Violet has been left by her parents to manage The Purple Barn, their busy roadside antique store, for the summer. Her restless older brother, Bliss, has disappeared, leaving home without warning, and her parents are off searching for clues. Violet is haunted by her brother's absence while trying to cope with her new responsibilities. Between visiting a local hermit, who makes twig furniture for the shop, and finding a way to land the contents of the legendary Vaughan estate, Violet acts out with her summer boyfriend and wonders about the mysterious boneyard. But what really keeps her up at night are thoughts of Bliss's departure and the white deer, which only she has seen.

All the Things We Leave Behind is a novel about remembrance and attachment, about what we collect and what we cast off. In highly affecting prose, Nason explores the permeability of memory and the sometimes confusing bonds of human emotion.