Eric Sager's dad has given up on him. The seventeen-year-old was constantly in trouble at school and had proven to be a bad influence on his younger brother at home. Eric's dad transports him from San Antonio to his grandparent's ranch in far West Texas and dumps him off. Luta Sager, Eric's grandmother has struggled to hold her family together after a tragedy which occurred sixteen years earlier. Her husband has remained angry, self-centered, and consumed with self-pity since the incident. Her faith and church family is all that has kept her from giving up. She has prayed that Eric, coming to live with them, will have a positive effect on him and his granddad. Frank Mendenhall has moved his family from Forth Worth to far West Texas and taken a highs school principal's job after being denied a promotion in his previous school. He is plagued with doubt and guilt about relocating his wife and two girls to what he describes as "the jumping off place."