Johnnie Kitchen is finally living her dream, attending college and writing a column for the local paper in Portion, Texas. She adores her husband, Dale, and their three children who are thriving and nearly grown. But Johnnie is rattled when her youngest boy, Cade, goes to Afghanistan. Then, after an attack on Johnnie and her black friend Whit by a boy Cade's age, she learns that Portion is not the forward-thinking town she believed it to be.