What do you do when you can't read? It's 1971 and nobody knows what's wrong with you. So how do you answer when your father calls you his defective son? Bobby McAllister doesn't know it, but his dyslexia isn't the only secret his family keeps. And it's not the only truth he himself will hide when he too becomes a farmer and fathers his own sons, passing on to them a lethal shame that will suddenly and tragically claim a cherished life.