Wrecker is three years old and alone in the world. His mother, Lisa Fay, has high hopes for her son, but the temptations of San Francisco in the 1960s land her in prison. Lisa Fay’s sister, Meg, gets custody of Wrecker, but a botched root canal has left Meg brain damaged and fully dependent on her devoted husband, Len. It falls to Len to adopt Wrecker, a skittish but fearless child, but Len quickly realizes that he can’t manage both Meg and Wrecker at the same time.

Len’s neighbors, the tiny commune at Bow Farm, agree to take Wrecker in. Melody, the youngest, bonds with Wrecker instantly and dreads the day she might lose him to his birth mother. Ruth, the eldest, shares an impish sense of humor with the unruly boy. Johnny Appleseed teaches Wrecker respect for nature and suspicion of the law. And Willow, who walked away from her own family, finds herself fighting two overwhelming urges: her maternal feelings for Wrecker and her growing attraction to Len. As two milestones approach --- Wrecker’s eighteenth birthday and the end of Lisa Fay’s prison sentence --- this slapdash family quickly bonds around Wrecker’s mysterious history, and the hopeful possibilities of his future.