When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, a parish priest in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Plunged into the tense cauldron of the early twentieth century's Deep South, Marcella struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous refusal to alter his mission even as the KKK takes to the streets, spewing hatred at minorities and Catholics. As she strives to rescue some meaning out of her exile in this foreign land, Marcella is swept up into a dangerous friendship, with consequences that shock the city and make an indelible mark on history.