A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.

In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena.

Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.