Lander, Alabama, 1904: When young Emma Scott claims she has been raped by a "black hobo", a chain of events is triggered that will affect generations to come.
In modern-day Lander, Canaan Phillips has fled her abusive husband and returned to Lander and her fierce Southern Baptist grandmother, who brought her up after her mother's suicide. Canaan's one friend during her childhood was her grandmother's simple brother, Luke. Now frail and elderly, Luke is still living in the corncrib shack that has been his home for 30 years.
This is a heart-rending and luminous story about loyalty, hardship, love and friendship. It is also a reminder that goodness can prevail even through the cruellest hardships.