When tragedy strikes and racial violence ensues, fifteen year-old Justin Coulter is forced from his home in Cooper's Gulch, the logging camp where he has lived all his life. For Justin, things will never be the same. The childhood pastimes--hunting for arrowheads and looking for fools' gold in the creek--have lost their charm. Sunday afternoon picnics and trips to see the circus are things of the past.

On an isolated ranch, with only his mother's Uncle Hal and Waters, his father's black partner, to guide him, Justin struggles to find himself and his place in a world that has filled...