Mark Cloud, the son of a Baptist preacher, is uprooted when his family moves from Fort Worth, Texas to Fred, a tiny town in East Texas, and struggles through his teenage years coming to terms with life in a small town.
When a boy returns from a vacation with a different outlook on God and life, he struggles to walk the path of true discipleship in defiance of his small, Texas community's expectations of how a preacher's son should behave.
College is a blank slate where Mark can write his own future instead of having his life ruled by the expectations of others. Or so he thinks. Until a ride home from work turns into a ride to jail.