When widowed high school teacher Carli Winslow returns from Europe, she finds her home ransacked. Gangs smuggling illegals and drugs wreck havoc on her small town of Parma. After the school principal is murdered, the new woman principal, an antagonistic student, and town leaders put Carli in danger. She's wary of Sam, her new mysterious neighbor, but when a flood destroys the bridge that divides Parma between the wealthy whites and the poorer Latinos, Carli and Sam's relationship changes. Secrets, greed, and hate surface. After a pontoon bridge reconnects the town, Carli's enemy strikes. She has one chance to survive.