PJ Purdee is a 14-year-old boy with a restless disposition and a curiosity and intelligence beyond his years. As a barefoot runner, he is likely to show up almost anywhere along the sandy roads that reach out from the cotton farms of the prairie into the impenetrable thicket grown up in the miles of Cutover where a virgin longleaf pine forest once stood. In the summer of 1950, PJ is finally old enough to do a man's work, not only among the truck farms and cotton fields of the Prairie, but also in the cotton gin. While the boy gains acceptance and appreciation, his mother Belle is in a far different place in her life. She is on the verge of making a decision that will change her sons' future forever.