1953. Ricochet, Washington. Three thirteen-year-old girls embark on a rabbit-raising project for 4H; a project that will change their lives and the way they view the quirky inhabitants of their provincial little town on the Columbia River. Tallulah, Penny, and Clover are as different from one another as the sour apple soup is from the sweet butter bean pie Tully's mother concocts at the Parsley Cafe. Tully is feisty and full of spit and vinegar; Clover, a privileged snob; and Penny lives a timid existence on the dodgy edge of town with her alcoholic father. Even so, the three misfits are...

When her seventeen-year-old son Max grabs a German Lugar to shoot alligators he swears are slithering up their front lawn, Maggie knows she has a problem. Thinking he is on drugs, she seeks help from experts and learns it's worse than she imagined. It's schizophrenia. Despite medications and therapy, Max's life spirals downward, and Maggie tumbles after him, hoping to pull him back to the world of reason. Trapped in a maze of theories and medications, legal and medical opinions, progress and setbacks, Maggie learns that even a mother's love is not enough to help a son in the throes of a...