Max Turner tries to stop his father from beating his mother and accidentally kills his old man in self-defense. His mother refuses to let him confess to the police and forces him to leave indefinitely. Max makes his way from Arkansas to Texas and is hired by Angie Rawlings, a widow nearly the age of his mother, to help with her farm. Angie teaches him to be a man, but when Max meets a beautiful, black girl named Mallory Washington, he's smitten and soon realizes he must choose between working for Angie or being with Mallory. Only before he decides, fate throws out another curveball and turns Max's life inside out.