Racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder are seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a 1950s Southern cotton-farming community.

10-year-old Luke lives with his parents and grandparents in Arkansas during the Korean War. To pick the cotton in their fields, they must hire "hill people" and Mexicans. Hank is a "hill person" who doesn't take kindly to people looking down on him. Luke witnesses a fight that Hank gets into that causes the death of another person. With better times ahead to look forward to, the town gets excited about a new invention - television

Industrial agriculture is forcing many small farmers to lose their land due to rising debt. When India had to open its doors to foreign seed vendors such as Monsanto, genetically altered cotton seed was all that was available. These seeds are more expensive, require irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides, and must be re-purchased every season, driving the small farmer into spiraling debt and ultimately suicide.