Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother, whose three teenaged children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. And so, when one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

Ten-year-old Bobby Smith, son of the local pharmacist and the host of the radio show "Neighbor Dorothy," grows to manhood in Elmwood, Missouri, observing the people and the changes that affect the small town in the decades after the end of World War II.