Shrouded in secrecy, 6-year-old Jack and his family relocate to drought-blighted, rural Nebraska. There Jack meets his grandfather. a mysterious man who only visits at night and never stays long. As Jack grows up, his one real friend is Mille, the granddaughter of a neighbor who visits every summer. Then on his sixteenth birthday, the past catches up with the family, and Jack must make decisions that will set the course for the rest of his life.