High-school girl Heaven is the eldest of Luke and Sarah's five children who live in the backwoods outside the small town of Winnerrow, West Virginia. She is the driven, academically-gifted one and soon learns why the community shuns their family, and then why Luke shuns her: Sarah is not her biological mother; a wealthy young girl, Leigh VanVoreen, ran away from home to marry Luke, then died in childbirth leaving baby Heaven, who greatly resembled her. Luke blames Heaven for his "Angel's" death. Beyond shunning her, Luke is largely an absent father and husband, often away looking for work, and most of what little he earns goes toward booze for himself. Heaven's siblings--teens Tom and Fanny and grade-schoolers Keith and Janey--are her life, and a new bright spot is new classmate Logan, newly-arrived from the big city; attracted to Heaven, he treats her with kindness and respect. Too soon tragedy overshadows the bright spot, Sarah walks out on the family, and Luke sells off his children. He sends her to live with his ex Kitty and her younger husband Cal, a writer she supports financially as he is unpublished. While she tries in vain to reunite her family, she learns the Casteels' other secrets. As she approaches womanhood, she will also discover that she is more her mother's daughter than just in looks.