When 15-year-old Jimmy Tuttle, a spoiled, rebellious city kid, is forced to spend the summer of 1969 with his feisty, childless great-aunt Matilda and her posse of rough farm hands on a dusty Idaho ranch, Jimmy discovers much more than he-or his coddling mother-ever bargained for. Along with many life lessons, he learns the dark secret Jimmy's mother and grandmother tried to deny, about a handsome stranger who rode into their small town in 1929, and unexpectedly changed the family forever. Meanwhile, Jimmy learns how to stand tall in work boots and protect the ranch and the characters he grows to admire from a mysterious outbreak of brutal acts that threaten them all. This is an uplifting story of love, family bonds and the tenderness that grows amongst the most unlikely individuals, when thrown together during one hot, life-changing summer.