In Strickland County --- a forgotten stretch of land in Southern Appalachia --- there isn’t a lot of anything to go around. But when 18-year-old Harlowe Compton’s brother is killed by the Praters --- the family who controls everything, from the mines to the law to the opioid trade --- he wonders if the future will ever hold more than loss.

Until he meets Tennessee Moore. Even as she struggles with the worst of the cards she’s been dealt, Tennessee makes Harlowe believe that they can dare to forge their own path. But as Harlowe searches for the answers behind his brother’s death, his town’s decay and his family’s dysfunction, he discovers truths about the people he loves --- and himself --- that are darker than he ever expected.

Now, Harlowe realizes, there’s no turning back.