Artist Stuart Anderson keeps moving all over the States, to inspire his painting pallet, with his wife and offspring. In 1954, they arrive in a rural town, where the kids Robert, Megan and Tamara soon feel really at home, although the previous owners moved out after their academically gifted son died from leukemia. Tamara (15) tastes of Chrustian faith and love with neighbor farm-boy Rusty Murphy. Then their ma is institutionalized with advanced tuberculosis, so people are scared to visit the 'cursed' house.