Teenagers Stella Grant and Will Newman have cystic fibrosis (CF), a progressive genetic disorder that damages organs and makes patients vulnerable to infections. Because of their compromised immune systems, patients with CF should get no closer than six feet to each other.

Stella, who copes with her illness by trying to maintain control of her daily regimen, takes her medication religiously and follows doctors’ orders precisely. Will, a cynical rebel whose prognosis is grim, is much more lackadaisical, an attitude that frustrates the meticulous Stella.

Will has contracted B. cepacia, and is part of a new drug trial, but the infection makes him ineligible for a lung transplant. Stella has been on the transplant list for a very long time.

When Stella discovers that Will is not doing his treatments, she tries to help him. In return, he only asks her for permission to draw a picture of her. Will begins to watch Stella’s social media videos. Over time, they begin doing their treatments together.

Will and Stella fall in love, but they can’t get closer than six feet to each other. Her G-tube becomes infected, so she has to undergo surgery to get it replaced. Will discovers that Stella’s sister Abby, who unfailingly cared for Stella, died from a botched daredevil stunt one year ago. Because Abby is dead, Stella must face the operation alone, while wracked with survivor guilt. After learning of Abby’s death, Will shows up to support Stella, and he sings her the song Abby always sang to her before surgery.

As Will leaves Stella’s surgical prep room, he is caught by nurse Barb. She tells him about two young people with CF who died after they fell in love and broke the six-foot rule, contaminating each other. Will realizes he loves Stella too much to endanger her, so he tells her he can’t see her anymore.

Stella becomes upset and angry but eventually plans to meet Will. She decides to take back one foot that CF has stolen from her, and carries a pool cue that measures exactly five feet so she can keep precisely that far away from Will.^[7]

On Will’s birthday, Stella’s best friend Poe, another CF patient, dies. As an act of rebellion against CF, the two leave the hospital to visit the lights that Stella could see from her hospital room, as Stella has long dreamed of doing.

While away from the hospital, Stella receives a text that her lung transplant is en route, which she ignores. She falls through the ice of a frozen pond as she and Will leave to go back to the hospital. She struggles but is near death when Will reaches into the water and pulls her out.

Even though saliva contact is very dangerous for two people with CF, he gives her CPR to save her life. Stella survives, and Will and Stella are brought back to the hospital. Will fears that CPR he gave her may have infected her with B. cepacia, but Stella’s lung transplant goes smoothly, and miraculously, she has not contracted B. cepacia.

Meanwhile, Will finds out that the drug trial he has been on has not been working for him. While Stella is still under anesthesia following the transplant, her parents, Will’s mother, and the nurses and doctors help Will set up the lights outside of Stella’s room.

After realizing he would likely infect her, Will decides to say a final goodbye to Stella and confesses his love for her. Before he leaves, he gives her his sketchbook of drawings he had done of her and her friends during their stay in the hospital.