When Jaycee Stephens is six years old, her mother dies and leaves her with an abusive drunk of a father who only remembers she's there when she gets in trouble. She grows up to be a hellion who doesn't take shit off anyone, but inside she's a love-starved little girl terrified of the dark. Her intrepid spirit carries her to college on an athletic scholarship, but she's tripped up there by a poor little rich boy named Bud Stanton who hides in a bottle just like Jaycee's old man. Bud is everything she despises, and she wants him more than she's ever wanted anything. When she finally stops fighting her attraction to him, they fall hard for each other, and God help anyone who gets caught in the crossfire. Jaycee and Bud are an emotional paradox: drawn to each other because they're so much alike, and constantly at war for the same reason. Their rollercoaster life is gritty, touching and funny, and just when they think they've made it safely to the end of their wild ride, Jaycee's childhood comes back to derail her. She has to go home and face her biggest fear: What happened to her in the dark?