Set in a poverty stricken shack in the hills of North Carolina this story follows the Samuals family as they struggle in their daily existence. Ma Samuals is a hard woman whose pain filled childhood helped form her twisted view of love and religion. Charlie Samuals, the brooding, more reticent sibling and the object of Ma's affections, is a simple man with innate wisdom who dreams of life and love beyond the hills. Messy Samuals, the unloved, more boisterous sibling, constantly strives to win the affections of Ma. Her deep need for love is played out in the most touching and tragic of ways. Anna, the shy and innocent visiting cousin, has left her own troubled past in hopes of finding an new life filled with love and happiness. Her arrival is the spark that sets the emotional fires burning from the Samuals family's dark past.