One day a stranger comes to claim Billy Creekmore from the Guardian Angels Home for Boys; and he embarks on a cross-country journey in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.
In 1944 in West Virginia, ten-year-old Petey and his teenage one-eyed sister wonder if their widowed mother is going to marry her friend Stone, who is a veteran and an artist.
Tired of his twelve-hour shifts and facing danger daily, Bitty, a canary whose courage more than makes up for his small size, treks to the state capital to try to improve working conditions in coal mines.
The summer before seventh grade, Venola Mae Cutright, Belington, West Virginia's best newspaper carrier, writes a series of humorous letters to her best friend away at camp, the Ultra Underwater Flea Circus Company, and her newspaper boss.
In 1948, while spending the summer with her aunt in West Virginia to find her family roots, Tilara begins visiting the "colored" old folks' home called McKendree, makes new friends, and learns to love herself.
Sapper Reeves leaves his wife and young son at home as he travels through the South in search of fame as a country musician, and is only reunited with his family when his son returns home wounded from the Vietnam War.
Sixth-grader Marty and his family try to help their rough neighbor, Judd Travers, change his mean ways, even though their West Virginia community continues to expect the worst of him.
