In 1945, Gordy's grandmother takes him and his family into her North Carolina home after his abusive father is arrested, and he has just begun to respond to his grandmother's loving discipline when his father returns.
Through a hot, dry Oklahoma summer, twelve-year-old Franny tends wild animals brought by her neighbors, hears gossip during a weekly quilting bee, befriends a new neighbor who has some big secrets, and learns to hope.