It's 1984, and fifteen-year-old Arizona is doing his best to take care of his younger brothers and sister while their daddy drives a truck cross-country and spends his paycheck on booze and gambling. In small town southeastern Louisiana, his family is known as the lowest of the low, and they say it's on account of a family curse that's so ugly, no one would dare speak of it.
Then Arizona's daddy loses his job, and things go from bad to worse. He baits Arizona into a fight, and their brawl results in him and his brothers and sister being split up by Social Services. Arizona is determined to make a better man of himself and take care of his siblings, but he's up against a world controlled by adults, small town prejudices, and unfathomable family secrets that will change everything he thought he knew about himself.