All her life, she prayed that someone would love her. But all she needed was someone to love.

Tobacco country, Virginia, 1948. Book smart and bright, Cora Slaughter has the potential to rise above her hardscrabble existence and her father's alcoholic rages. If only she had the money for college…if only she weren't lame...if only, she dreams, the right man would fall in love with her and take her away. Then Aaron, a handsome drifter, comes around seeking farm work. Eager to please and hungry for affection, Cora falls for him-but soon learns that being with Aaron is nothing like she imagined. As her new life begins, her only joy will be the moments of happiness she snatches with her young son. Then, by a clear creek that marks the border between the black community and the white, she meets an African-American woman and finds a friend. Soon, in a racially divided South, Cora must make a courageous—and dangerous—choice...

In the tradition of Janet Fitch's White Oleander and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, this is a powerful and riveting novel of hope, despair, and the restorative power of love.