In an Appalachian Mountain town during the early 1950s, guns and domestic abuse are as prevalent as prayer meetings and dubiously ordained preachers. Young Skyla Fay Jenkins is often forced to choose between what's labeled "righteous" and what she knows to be right. When her family moves up north to an urban setting, she struggles to overcome the social and gender limitations of the late 1950s and 1960s. Decades later, a chance encounter with a childhood nemesis prompts her to revisit the abiding love and playful river romps of her youth, along with a traumatic abduction and family violence.

This fictional story celebrates the ability of a child to survive and thrive, despite those who would do her harm and the failed intentions of those who would protect her. It also explores decades of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, from the perspective of an evolving free-spirited female.