An average 12-year-old, August likes dogs and fishing and doesn't mind early-morning chores on his family's Michigan dairy farm. Following his parents' messy divorce, his mother decides that she and August need to start over in a new town. There, he tries to be an average teen, but when his role in an act of violence throws him off course once more, he flees to a ranch in rural Montana, where he learns that even the smallest communities have secrets.