Laura and ''Bud'' Rice share an elegant home and two children; brilliant, handsome Tom and cherished, chronically ill Timmy. But after nineteen years of marriage, Laura''s respectable husband is a stranger - and the reason behind Tom''s escalating involvement with a group of campus bigots.

Suddenly the Crawfields enter their lives and shatter the Rice''s fragile world. As their quiet Southern town explodes with hate and violence, the two families must embrace the shattering truth, or risk being destroyed by it.