Emma Parker is a 16-year-old girl living in one of only two remaining houses of what used to be a busy sawmill community in Central Louisiana. Her mother is dead and her father, the most hated man in town, is a pitiful alcoholic. Lacking in social graces and a mother's guiding hand, she is an outcast among most of the town's people. No one realizes she is a talented artist until this is noticed by Hugh Giles, a handsome member of a rich Texas oil family, who opens her eyes to aspects of life she is overlooking. They are snared into a brief romance before Hugh returns home to Houston, leaving Emma with an intimate dilemma. Fleeing an untenable conflict with her father's temper at home, she finds herself in New Orleans where she becomes a familiar face in the French Quarter as a successful sidewalk artist. But her home still beckons her to return. Three years later, the past comes back to haunt her and yet, to redeem her. The trials of her past still exist, leaving her physically challenged and with only one feasible outcome that rests on the shoulders of someone else.