Charley Benetto, an alcoholic considering suicide, is given the chance to spend one more day with his mother, who had died eight years earlier.

Captures the humorous and complex realities of ordinary people living in Elmwood Springs, Missouri, including Neighbor Dorothy, a radio hostess, her son Bobby, the Oatman Family gospel singers, and hotshot salesman Hamm Sparks.

Mary Beth Latham puts everything else aside in order to focus on her one son who suffers from severe depression, but she is not prepared for the violence that follows.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged...

Willa and Mason, two teens who are unceremoniously dragged to Salem, Massachusetts for the summer, meet and help each other figure out their places in the world. Willow has never felt like she belonged anywhere and is convinced that the only way to find a true home is to travel the world. But her plans to act on her dream are put on hold when her aloof and often absent mother drags Willow to Salem, Massachusetts, to wrap up the affairs of an aunt...