Everyone knows a single man can't raise a baby on his own. At least in the Deep South in1923 they did. But Caleb Muldrow has a history of being hard-headed, and he has a promise to keep. On the night before his daughter is born, he and his wife, Nancy, exchange promises to raise the child themselves if something should ever happen to either one of them. It doesn't seem like a big thing until Nancy dies giving birth. An illiterate sharecropper with no money, no family, and no prospects, Caleb's first instinct is to bow to social pressures and give the baby up to his parents-in-law. But a promise is a promise, and their baby girl, Mae, is the only link he has to Nancy. With a lot of faith, a little luck, and plenty of help from his neighbors, Caleb starts out on a journey of love and necessity. Tragedy, poverty, and class prejudice all conspire to hold him down, but he's determined to keep his promise. He does what he has to, including learning to read and staying single to prevent distractions from Mae, to give his daughter a life with choices he and Nancy could never have hoped for. Without realizing it, he grows up, too, as he struggles to make himself into a man Mae can be proud to call her father. Caleb's goal is to see Mae graduate from high school and choose her own direction when she steps out into the world. But choices bring conflict, and he's not prepared to deal with some of the options she decides to consider. After all the struggles of raising a child, success can be the scariest thing of all.