Jude Connor's rural Idaho hometown is a place of strong values and high expectations. For those who fit into the local church's narrow confines, there's support and fellowship. For those who don't, there's ostracism in this life and certain damnation in the next. Jude wants desperately to be saved to believe with the fervor of Reverend Amos King, whose sermons are filled with brimstone and righteousness. Yet it hasn't been easy. It's not just the forbidden friendship with his unconventional classmate, Pearl, or the difficulties of being orphaned and in his older brother's care. There are the restrictions governing how congregants should behave, the whispers that follow Gregory Hart, a man who cares for his wheelchair-bound sister and offers guidance Jude sorely needs. And there's Jude's burgeoning need to decide for himself how to live, when to question, and who to love.