Sixteen-year-old Dana Mallory is a front-runner to win a prestigious state art scholarship; but, a wealthy newspaper editor wants Dana eliminated from the contest so that her daughter can compete. It is June 1949 in Wild Cone, a small river town in Northern California.
Dana's mother, beset with financial problems and in need of her daughter's help refuses to sign the application for the contest. Dana takes matters into her own hands in a series of deceitful, misguided and desperate acts.
In the midst of this family saga is the unexpected arrival of Great Aunt Hattie, bearing a box of...