Curtis Herden has seen plenty of traumatic events in his first seven years of life. His father died in a drill rig accident, his mother, Bonnie, was briefly jailed for the murder of his stepfather and he watched a man who was harassing his mother get shot to death in a parking lot. After all that, Bonnie decided, with the urging of the sheriff and her attorney, they needed to leave their Southeast Wyoming home and to start a new life in a small town in Central Nebraska. Though he struggled to make friends, and was tormented by one particular bully, Curtis thrived in school and set his sights on being a farmer. One summer he met a girl his own age and they became best friends. With her encouragement, he came further out of the protective shell he had constructed around himself. However, when Mary disappears late one night the community's suspicion falls on Curtis.