The product of two Schubert classes in the quantum $K$-theory ring of a homogeneous space $X=G/P$ is a formal power series with coefficients in the Grothendieck ring of algebraic vector bundles on $X$. We show that if $X$ is cominuscule, then this power series has only finitely many non-zero terms. The proof is based on a geometric study of boundary Gromov-Witten varieties in the Kontsevich moduli space, consisting of stable maps to $X$ that take the marked points to general Schubert varieties and whose domains...