First cousins Eli Winfield and Delia Green grow up across the street from one another in Green Branch, South Carolina, in the 1960s and '70s. After Eli's tragic childhood accident, the trajectory of their lives and of those connected to them changes. Shunned by his peers for his disfigurement, Eli struggles for acceptance as Delia devotes herself to defending him. Delia's vivid narrative voice presents Eli as a confident young man in adolescence, the visible damage to his body gone, but underneath hides indelible wounds that rule his impulses. And while Eli cherishes Delia more than anyone and attempts to protect her from her own troubles, he cares not for protecting himself.