Mary Crampton has spent all of her 30 years in the small Western town of Petroleum. Living at home, she works as the embalmer in her father’s mortuary. Though some townsfolk pretend that the community is thriving, the truth is that Petroleum is crumbling away --- a process that began 20 years ago when an accident in the grain elevator killed a beloved high school athlete. Robert Golden, the victim’s younger brother, was widely blamed for the tragedy and shipped off to live elsewhere. Now, out of the blue, Robert has returned to care for his terminally ill mother. After Mary strikes up an unlikely friendship with him, she finally begins to consider what might happen if she dared to leave Petroleum.