The novel follows the life of Red McCray, a 16-year-old girl during the 1920s. She is trapped on a family farm near the frontier town of Belle Glade, Florida because she is the only person who puts food on the family table. She is trapped in a family with an alcoholic father and withdrawn mother, and she is the only person willing to protect her younger sister from the father's explosive temper. Red is resigned to her lonely life until a young graduate student moves into a neighboring farm. After that, nothing is the same.
