"Ever since the day she was born, she could aggravate me one moment, then leave me feeling ashamed for not being a better mother the very next. She simply wants more and needs more than I ever have to give her." In 1963, Holly Hendricks and her family moved from the small East Texas town where they have strong family roots to the impersonal city of Dallas. Against a backdrop of local and worldwide turbulence, their once close ties are fragmented. With her mother not coming to terms with losing a son and the father having a breakdown, fourteen-year-old Holly returns to the small town to stay with her Grandma as she tries to cope with the loss of her brother.