Benny’s parents are splitting up. His mom leaves home after a fight about a mysterious splinter that is rumored to be part of an important relic. Benny’s dad has always liked clutter, but now, he begins hoarding everything from pizza boxes to old motorcycle parts.
As his house grows more cluttered and his father grows more distant, Benny tries to sort out whether he can change anything at all. Meanwhile, a local teacher enters their quiet Missouri town in America’s Most Charming Small Town contest, and the pressure is on to clean up the area, especially Benny’s ramshackle of a house, before the out-of-town guests arrive.
Is it possible to feel homesick in your own home? That's what Benny wonders after his mom leaves and his dad begins filling the house with junk. Fortunately, a new radio station has just opened where Benny is able to find refuge. But what he really wants to find is a cure for homesickness. Set back when phones still had cords and clocks had hands, Homesick is a story about the end of a marriage, the beginning of a friendship, and those complicated days when life can seem like one big mess for a boy who’s no longer a child but not yet a man.