In the pre-Katrina world of south Louisiana, a high school girl and her mother are caught up in a violent act of retribution.
Callie Houston lives with her single-parent mom, Jeanne, in the small town of Hammond, La. She's a smart, impulsive young woman who figures she can handle almost anything. Suddenly her world is turned upside down when her mother is kidnapped by Tony Ryan, one of her mother's accounting business clients. The mobster is looking for papers incriminating him in an embezzlement scheme. Blood, pain, and violent death replace her sheltered world of books and nature.
Callie’s story is not only about how she survives her ordeal, but also how painful choices are part of growing up.