In a small Texas town Shelley, a bright high school senior planning to attend college on a full scholarship. Motherless and with her father away, she has been taking care of her 14 year-old sister, Tanya, a precocious adolescent on the verge of exploring her sexual identity. Through flashbacks, yarn reveals right from the beginning how Shelley was sexually abused as a girl by her father, Carl. At present, life at home with their nasty stepmother, Ruby, is unpleasant, and it becomes even more hellish as soon as Carl returns to his family from Mexico, where he has been hiding from the narcotics police, hoping to renew his secret liaison with Shelley. Rebuffed by her, Carl turns his attention to Tanya, to Shelley’s alarm. Tensions continue to rise until a bloody climax, through which the two sisters re-establish their bond with the help of Shelley’s classmate Raymond, one of the few black residents in town.