Karl Ferguson, Jr. doesn’t find it easy to fit into the small county of King, Kentucky. He can’t seem to stay out of trouble with the law. Given the choice to either join the military or go to jail, Karl Jr. joins the Air Force to pursue his dream of wealth while traveling the world.
Meanwhile back home, the devoted, innocent, naive Elaine Brown waits for Karl Jr. to return. Since she was 10-years-old, she’s been in love with him even though he thinks of her as a child due to their difference in age. Time changes his thinking after he returns home years later in disgrace from a dishonorable discharge. He now sees Elaine as a woman and not the poor little girl from the head of a holler. He woos her and they soon get married. Unable to have children, she and Karl Jr. adopt two children, Richard and Kentucky Shine, who get to experience life in this small county of colorful characters. But even children are not enough to save a marriage.
During their tumultuous marriage, the emotional strain and years of dealing with Karl Jr.’s infidelities and gambling end in a divorce, taking a dramatic emotional toll on Elaine’s well-being resulting in an unstable parent with drinking problems and poor judgment who is severely depressed. Soon after the divorce, Karl Jr. begins a new family with the young teenage girl that helped end his marriage. His relationship with his adopted children grows more distant as he spends less time with them. As a result of their parents’ issues, Richard and Kentucky Shine experience neglect and abuse leading them down a path of unstable relationships in their lives. However, regardless of what Karl Jr. has done, Elaine still secretly pines for and continues to love Karl Jr. in hopes that he will return to her one day.
Decades pass after the divorce. Kentucky and Richard’s lives mirror the impact of being raised by two broken parents. Just as things start to get better in their children’s personal lives, Karl Jr.’s health declines. As Karl Jr. faces his own death, he looks for forgiveness …something he may never receive from his children. Within five years of their father’s death, Kentucky Shine and Richard must decide again whether to forgive another dying parent who put her husband and self-loathing above them at a time in their lives when they needed her the most.
