Eleven year old Maria has lost her little brother to cancer. Having disappeared into herself, her mother is no longer there for Maria and her father struggles to keep the family together. Maria meets Jacob, who is the same age as she, but with a completely different attitude. Jacob is outgoing, exciting, funny and has wisdom way beyond his tender years. He gradually pulls Maria out of her shell and enables her to come to decisions which will affect her entire life.

A newspaper photographer researches an 1873 double homicide and finds her own life paralleling that of a witness who survived the tragic ordeal.

A boy witnesses his father lose his temper in the face of a stranger.