"When we meet August 'Gus' Molloy . . . he's just overdosed at the Detroit restaurant where he works. Shortly after, he packs it in and returns home to his family for another shot at sobriety. There, he meets and falls quickly in love with Monae Livingston, an urban farmer trying to coax a tenuous rebirth from the damaged land. As Gus and Monae begin dreaming up an oasis together in Flint, the city's water supply is being quietly poisoned. Woven throughout their story are the stories of Gus's and Monae's families--Gus's white and Monae's Black--[who] have had their own triumphs and devastating setbacks trying to survive and thrive in their troubled city"--Provided by publisher.