Nestled among the courthouse square storefronts of Zebulon, Georgia sits Bonnie Mac's Cafe, the only eatery in town. While the cafe serves most everyone in Pike County, its regular patrons include Ouida Clarkston, a chain-smoking local famiy heiress; Buddy Simpson, a self-proclaimed womanizer; Brooksie Barnett, a gruff, whiskey-drinking mechanic; and Cooter Renfroe, the town's chatty, gossip-spreading postman. Known for her grease-laden Southern cooking and Blue Plate specials, owner Bonnie MacGregor, widowed at a young age after her husband commits suicide, lives a busy but solitary existence. While Bonnie could have any eligible gentleman in a three-county radius, she is content to live alone and run her business.
That all changes one stormy night in the spring of 1957, when Bonnie finds a tattered, cross-eyed, mute little girl abandoned in her cafe. The girl's mother, a prostitute and addict, leaves the child in the cafe with plans to run off to California with her boyfriend, who is both her pimp and her dealer.
Bonnie must face a custody battle in the courts before she and her regulars become the stray Gracie's family who watch over her as she navigates life's challenges. Gracie is taunted about her red hair and crossed eyes until she befriends Charlie Callahan, who has lost his family to a tragic house fire and now lives at the nearby children's home. Although Charlie stutters and Gracie sports a patch over one eye, the two win the respect of the other kids whenever they choose up sides for a game of softball.
Gracie and Charlie's lives intertwined as they travel the rode from childhood into puberty. The two are inseparable until Beau Loosier, the town's spoiled, rich bully, victimizes one of them. Then suddenly Beau Loosier disappears.
As Gracie heads to college and Charlie into the military, one of them leaves behind a dark secret that will not be revealed until the emotional climax.