Twelve-year-old Sparky Carpenter, his brother Bub, and friend Hacky begin summer break with Sparkys initiation into their secret club, however, when the boys discover a bloody bag containing a slaughtered mother dog and pups, all dead except one, the innocence of childhood begins ebbing away. Coming of age in the 1980s dilapidating coal camp of Friendship, Kentucky, Sparky struggles to accept either himself and the teaching of his ostracized grandmother or the norms propagated by the bigotry and prejudice of a town united by not only racism but also the fear of Gods newest plagueAIDS.
