Carla Turner has drifted for all her thirty-two years. Worn down by the banality of rural life with an abusive husband and resigned to simple existence, she barely recognizes new adventure in the form of a man, even one as gorgeous as Brian DeCanto. But Brian understands the need for escape all too well. After accidentally shooting his boss, he takes the murder's sole witness - his boss's ten-year-old son - on the run with him. Brian and Carla collide in an explosion of star-crossed lust that leads them from passionate fantasy into the harsh reality of the 1980s South and sweeps them to their final destiny.