Neely Watts thinks she's hit bottom. Her marriage is falling apart, her husband has threatened to kill her if he finds out she's cheating on him and her affair with her boss isn't working out the way she planned. All she wanted was to have fun but now she's In love...and miserable. With her world crumbling around her, she's desperate to get advice from the one person she trusts-her grandmother, Ganzie Sims, who lives in Sedalia, Missouri, only 5 hours away. However, when Neely arrives at Ganzie's doorstep, she is greeted by woman who is gravely ill and seems too fragile to help Neely figure out what she should do. Ganzie takes one look at the bruise on Neely's cheek and knows the time has come for Neely to be strong enough to make her own decisions. So, in spite of her weakened state, she pulls out her old photos and takes Neely on an odyssey to turn-of-the-century Sedalia, Missouri, when she was young and in love with Charleston Sims. As she shares the story of her youth, she reveals the secrets she has kept hidden in her heart for over 60 years. Neely is shocked...but she understands and forgives. All too soon, Neely confronts her mother with Ganzie's stories and discovers that Alma, too, has been harboring a secret. With this secret revealed, Neely, unable to give her mother the same compassion she gave her grandmother, finally hits bottom. BRANCHES is the story of these three African-American women and their struggles to define themselves in spite of expectations, adversity, self-doubt and disappointment. At its heart, BRANCHES is the story of how secrets destroy and how Truth has the power to heal.