With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William Carter is struggling to keep his family's cotton farm afloat. As his options wane, William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father's whereabouts. Together with his best friend, Ollie, he sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. But before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country's most uncharted, untamed land. But the danger is doubled when they agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena, eliciting the ire of the show's leader, the nefarious con man Doctor Downtain. As William, Ollie and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William's father, Downtain is closing in on them, readying to make good on his violent reputation.

A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads. But when his closest friend runs afoul of local criminals, Frog and Squirrel Fenley, Jesse is forced to spin his moral compass and enter a violent and volatile underworld. There he encounters corrupt lawmen, hired assassins and a dark family secret that will upend all he once knew. Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins --- who arrives to investigate the Fenleys just as their empire is threatened by a deadly new competition --- and the green-eyed, raven-haired Adaline, a love Jesse thought he'd lost forever. With resources scarce and winter falling hard on the town, a desperate Jesse must choose between the law and the lawless and find a way to survive while still protecting the people he loves.

Harlen LeBlanc is a dependable, if quiet, employee of the Carter Hills High School's grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend, while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice. Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael's life that sends him running from everything he has ever known.