Jesse Edwin McKinney, III was born stubborn, his birth attended to by flybuzzed sweat, by low expectations, and by the hovering burdens of a house too full of accounts too small. Jesse Ed's difficult birth would prove to be Mama's ultimate joy, however, as he, the youngest of her 11 children, is the glue that holds her large family together. As the McKinney family begins to scatter in the face of poverty, adversity, and tragedy, only their love and Jesse Ed's stubborn refusal to quit can hold them together. He means to be the glue, and nothing, not even the threat of death, will stop him.