Fifteen years after his mother left town in disgrace, Malachi “Mally” Jacobs returns to Croy, Oklahoma, to take care of his ailing grandfather. Outcast and abandoned, he knows nothing about his father or why his mother left. After a few false starts, he forms an unlikely alliance with Randy, a football player with alcoholic parents, and Joanie, an intellectually curious and courageous girl who cannot face the truth about her own family. The three kids find a haven in each other that takes the place of their fractured families. They learn to balance honesty and loyalty, sexual longing and selfless love, and take comfort in the true bonds of friendship.