Clydeston "Parch" Coleman comes of age during the 1950's in the poverty-stricken mountains of north Georgia. The son of uneducated share-croppers, Parch encounters enormous obstacles in his inherited life of destitution, sickness, depression and hopelessness.With the encouragement of a few significant people, particularly a gifted young high school teacher who inspires him to believe in himself, Parch eventually begins to seek a way to overcome the...