17-year old Cal Smith awakens in the late afternoon to the pounding on his front door. It"s the sheriff who tells him his mother has just been accidentally killed at work in the Thunderbrook Rice Mill. Accompanied by a social worker named Darcy, Cal pleads with a judge to be emancipated, but the judge is leaning toward foster care. An uncle appears Cal has never met before to rescue him from "the system." They form an alliance to pick up the pieces of his mother"s life. Piece by piece, they come to realize that his mother"s death was no accident. And now someone wants them all to leave Thunderbrook. Preferably feet first.