Lucinda Mae lives with her family and their homestead animals in Painter Creek Hollow, a secluded nook of the Blue Ridge Escarpment in upstate South Carolina that people call the Gorges. The story explores the lifeways of rural mountain families who remain tied to traditional ways of living, such as raising hogs, poultry, hunting squirrels, and using local plants for medicine, among others. The winter holiday season, the warming earth, and the ways misunderstanding and prejudice can harm relationships between friends and between generations are also themes in the novel.