Eva Burnette has been helping people her entire life. Always when they asked but often when they didn't. She follows her heart to where the needs are greatest and does what she can to set things right. She lives simply and honestly on her small farmstead in Mooresville, Alabama enjoying the fruits of her labors and communion with her God.

In the summer of 1966, when she and her granddaughter, Lora, discover a neighbor's son hiding in the garden shed, afraid he may have killed a man, life gets complicated for everyone involved. The young man, Leon, is black and the dead man is white. Ethelred Bumpus was a drunken, violent, community nuisance that no one will miss or mourn but nevertheless, Leon is in trouble. For Eva, the choice is clear. Leon must be protected.

Eva trusts that Bumpus's death will be written off as an accident and turns her mind to more important matters. After all, it is peak garden season and she has weeds to battle. Bumpus continues to upheave lives when Eva is arrested for his death. The community of Mooresville is rocked by this turn of events and the tendrils of gossip grow faster than kudzu. For the first time in her life, Eva must rely on the love and loyalty of friends and family as they rally to save her from spending the rest of her life in prison.