High school astronomy teacher Leo Castor receives a devastating diagnosis: a rare heart condition his doctor calls "a stellar core collapse." Given months to live, the Toledo, Ohio man responds not with despair but with wonder. He buys a cheap telescope, sets it up in his crooked backyard, and starts inviting neighbors to look at the stars. What begins as one man's confrontation with mortality becomes a community-wide phenomenon. Through humor, heartbreak, and unexpected connections, Leo discovers that even dying stars can illuminate the darkness—and that scattering isn't the same as disappearing. A story about looking up when everything feels lost.
