1970: 'Bean' Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving the girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that has been in Charlotte's family for generations. Because money is tight, Liz and Bean start working for local bully Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill town. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox, and it's up to Bean to help her challenge the injustice of the adult world...