Tessa, with the help of her best friend, Zoey, comes up with a list of things she wants to do before she dies, including some risky behaviours that she deems necessary to have "lived."

Her mother is loving and joking about the situation and seems supportive, but she has not been present in Tessa's treatments or involved in her life at a deep level.

Her father's main mechanism for coping is denial; she mentions that he spends hours on the computer looking up possible treatments for her even after the doctors told her that the cancer has consumed her body.

Tessa's brother, Cal, is a brutally honest individual and has mixed feelings throughout the novel ranging from lack of care to jealousy to sadness.

The film stars Jeremy Irvine as Adam, Dakota Fanning as Tessa and Kaya Scodelario as Zoey.