In the small town of North River, every day that goes by bleeds into the next. Poverty begets hopelessness, hopelessness begets violence, violence begets despair. The only way to change fate, a minister tells his son, is to leave. The minister's son, Jake MacNeil, chooses to ignore his father's advice. Only when he realizes what has become of his life--working a grueling dead end job, living with a drunk, friends with a murderer--does he decide to make something of himself. But nothing comes without a cost: in choosing freedom, Jake abandons his own son, Nathan, to the care of the boy's abusive mother. Years later, a reformed Jake comes back for Nathan, to finally set things right. But in North River, everything comes around again; and when a dangerous figure from the past becomes hell-bent on dragging the new Jake 'back down where he belongs', three generations of MacNeil men must come together to pay the full price of hope.