A big, moving novel of one tight-knit Texas community and the events that alter its residents' lives forever. Friendswood is a small Gulf Coast town of church suppers, oil rigs on the horizon, hurricane weather and high school football games. When tragedy rears its head with an industrial leak that kills and sickens residents, it pulls on the common thread that runs through the community, intensifying everything.

From a confused 16-year-old girl beset by visions to a high school football star tormented by his actions to a mother galvanized by the death of her teen daughter to a morally bankrupt father trying to survive his mistakes, René Steinke explores what happens when families are trapped in the ambiguity of history's missteps — when the actions of a few change the lives and well-being of many.