A man reflects on the summer of his fourteenth year, where in Baton Rouge he fell in love with a golden-haired girl across the street before an unspeakable crime shattered illusions in his seemingly idyllic neighborhood.

1989. In a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, Lindy Simpson-- track star, and belle of the block-- experiences a horrible crime. It becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too. The suspects are numerous, including our narrator-- who discovers how life can be irreversibly transformed by heartbreak, guilt, and love.