In the summer of 1992, Meredith and Gale find the body of a dead black man in the river of their segregated hometown of Levine. That night, Gale runs away, disappearing for thirteen years, until Meredith finds his picture in a magazine. She tracks him down, invoking a childhood promise that drags them both back to Levine, where they must face the monsters of their youth in order to uncover the truth about the event that ruined their lives.