Julia is an eleven-year-old who lives in California. A few months before her birthday, the world undergoes an unexplained phenomenon called "slowing", in which the completion of one rotation of the Earth takes longer. By the time it is confirmed by the experts, a day is 24 hours and 56 minutes.
The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.