In summer 1944, while the allies invade Europe, America buzzes with activity. On a sharecropper farm near Bennettsville, SC, a family of seven struggles to deal with the changing world. The landowner cheats Daddy; Mama's legs are giving out; Frances discovers that the soldiers and sailors open the world to her; TJ is gay and wants to move to a big city; Jimmy, the young narrator, sees that the world is getting much bigger as he fantasizes about the war and becoming a photographer; Irene is a child, but the farm is not for her; Lawrence wants to stay, but the war catches him in its claws. Six of them want desperately to get off the farm, while one wants nothing more than to stay right where he is. But at what cost?